NEWSROOM

The agricultural sector in Turkey grew by 3.5% in the first half of the year. Turkey also became the leader in Europe with an agricultural GDP of $48.9 billion. Halit Ünlü, the Chairman of Ünlü Ziraat Group, said, “Mechanization in agriculture should increase for the sustainability of this momentum gained despite the setbacks in the pandemic.”

*** This release is originally published in Turkish.
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ISTANBUL (TR) - The Covid-19 pandemic has caused economic fluctuations in many industries since the first months of 2020. The agricultural sector, which has a share of 85 trillion dollars in world income, was among the few sectors that maintained its share despite the disruptions in imports and exports. According to the data of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry in Turkey, the agricultural sector grew by 2.6% in the first quarter of 2020 and 3.5% in the first six months with 4% in the second quarter. Turkey became the leader in Europe with an agricultural GDP of $48.9 billion, and ranked among the top ten countries in the world.

Halit Ünlü, Chairman of Ünlü Ziraat Group operating in Manisa, pointed out the importance of mechanization in increasing the market volume in agriculture and made assessments on the problems experienced in imports and exports during the pandemic process and how they can be overcome. Ünlü said, “According to the National Academy of Engineering in the United States, mechanization in agriculture is described as one of the 20 revolutions experienced by the world. In the recent past, the Chinese government also prepared a ‘Made in China 2025 Strategy Document’ that determined that one of the ten sectors that will move China from a middle-income country to a high-income country is agricultural machinery. Because machine-based agricultural production generates surplus labor, and when this labor force is added to other industries such as manufacturing as an additional labor force, both the market volume expands and the economy grows. So agricultural machinery are the chief promoters of economic growth. For the sustainability of this momentum gained despite the failures in the pandemic process, mechanization in agriculture must increase.”

Export-oriented investments continue in agricultural machinery

Stating that Ünlü Ziraat supports mechanized agriculture with the production of plow types and other soil cultivation tools, Ünlü said, “We came together with the country in our troubled days that started with the pandemic process. Although our export conditions became very difficult, we still continued our purchases and investments in order to turn the crisis into an opportunity. Currently, we produce 90-100 plows per day and this will increase even more. If we can realize our plans, we will enter not only the European market but also the American market. I can say that our aim is to produce much more benefits to society and the state through great goals. We want to sell much more to countries such as Moldavia, Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Greece, Bulgaria and Romania in 5 years. Our sales to these countries were fine. The pandemic caused a decrease in sales, but we evaluated this period with an investment of 30 million TL in automation in production.”

In the next period, focusing especially on exports; referring to their efforts to achieve the goal of rapid and continuous growth, Ünlü said, “If it is considered that what we will do is not finished, we are trying to act according to this approach in order to accelerate production, increase quality and contribute to our state by turning into a global brand.”