Turkey: Oilseeds and Products Update
Turkish soybean area and production for MY 2015 are estimated about 25,000 hectares and 90,000 MT. Competition from other crops such as corn, wheat and peanut in the soy growing areas had adverse effect on soy in farmers planting decisions. Turkey imported 2.2 MMT of soybeans and 450,000 MT of soybean meal during the MY 2014. While soy imports increased thirty-eight percent, soymeal imports declined thirty-seven percent. Increases in crushing capacity and industrial use of soy oil were the reasons for soy imports increase. The U.S. supplied about 805,000 MT of soybean and 47,000 MT of soybean meal. Since July 2015, the Biosafety Board had approved a total of four biotech soy events and nine corn events, which somewhat eased the import problems that traders were facing. Despite the avian influenza outbreak this year that affected exports of Turkish poultry and eggs, production continued to increase during the marketing year.