Domestic production is being phased out for the sake of foreign markets

Bilge Su Yıldırım

Pro-capital agricultural policies that prioritise imports threaten domestic production of many crops, from sunflowers to corn, cotton to almonds and tobacco. The government's spending of public resources on import incentives is driving farmers, already struggling in the current economic crisis, off the land.

The ‘Regulation on Agricultural Product Purchases and Related Service Procurement by the General Directorate of the Grain Board (TMO) through Imports,’ which came into force after being published in the Official Gazette on 27 August, has further accelerated the shift towards imports.

With this regulation, the only condition for the Grain Board to import a product is approval from the Minister of Agriculture and Forestry. This regulation gives the Grain Board the right to import any product in any quantity from any country, through any person or company, at any price it desires. The process, which is now solely dependent on the Minister's approval, has bypassed public transparency and commission oversight. Thus, the import ban applied to various strategic products has also become dependent on the signature of a single individual.

EVERYTHING IS SHAPED BY A SINGLE SIGNATURE

Farmers, already struggling with low purchase prices in the face of rising input costs due to the economic crisis, were virtually left out of the equation as public incentives for imports gained momentum. Factories turned to cheaper imported products, purchasing them from foreign markets before domestic products even reached the market. Factories, whose profits depended on imported products, offered low purchase prices to producers. Factories, which were another option for farmers who could not cover their costs with TMO's quota-restricted product purchases, which were insufficient to cover even input costs, thus closed their doors at “zero prices”.

Rising input costs, low purchase prices, drought and frost linked to the global climate crisis, coupled with capital-friendly policies that encourage imports, accelerated the process of farmers leaving their fields. Many producers stated that they would not be able to plant crops next year.

FIRST INDEBTEDNESS, THEN DISPOSSESSION

Fatih Özden, a research assistant in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Ege University, assessed import policies for BirGün. Noting that agricultural policies indexed to the world market overlook the subjective problems of producers engaged in local production, Özden stated that this has led to the construction of a destructive process resulting in the dispossession of farmers. Özden stated: "Both in Turkey and globally, starting in the 1980s and particularly by the mid-1990s, export-oriented policies were adopted in line with the World Trade Organisation's programmes. This process essentially laid the groundwork for the current situation. The focus on the global market resulted in the “sacrifice” of the needs of farmers for the international market. Natural disasters linked to the global climate crisis had already affected crop yields, and when this was compounded by high input costs and purchase prices focused on the global market that did not cover these costs, farmers were left out of production. Producers unable to earn an income first resorted to borrowing, and when they couldn't repay their debts, they began to lose their property. The gap created by the disengagement of farmers from production was attempted to be closed not through structural policies, but through imports. However, this policy, pursued in line with the capital accumulation regime, further suppressed domestic production."

CAPITAL POLICIES MUST BE ABANDONED

Stating that the country has systematically run a foreign trade deficit since 2020, Özden continued: "The foreign trade deficit shows that imports exceed exports. When we point this out, the response is that imported products are processed into food and then re-exported to the market. While this may be true at the macroeconomic level, it does not solve the producer's problem. Prioritising imported products puts pressure on domestic products and prices. Although suggestions such as tax reductions on input costs are put forward at this point, this is not a solution either, as we are dependent on imports for inputs. What needs to be done is to change the macroeconomic capital accumulation regime in agriculture. We need to turn the pyramid upside down. First, the local market should be considered, then the regional market, followed by the national market, and finally the international market. This will create a policy that starts from the bottom up, where farmers have more say, rather than corporate agriculture and food policies. This will ultimately shape a system based on food sovereignty."

Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Dış pazar uğruna yerli üretim bitiriliyor, published in BirGün newspaper on October 30, 2025.