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While Turkey’s food exports are increasing daily, the low share of local production in the total has prompted new food technology companies. Aiming to reverse this picture, Çiftçi Gurme, the food technologies platform, creates a gastronomy bridge between domestic producers and global markets by signing strategic collaborations and R&D studies.

*** This release is originally published in Turkish.

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TURKEY - Turkey’s food exports are increasing day by day. The latest data announced by the Federation of Turkish Food and Beverage Industry Associations point out that Turkey's exports of the agriculture, food and beverage sector in the first eight months of 2022 increased by 18.4% compared to the same period of the previous year and reached 15.8 billion dollars. Although our country is breaking a record in food exports, exporting only 10% of the local production capacity mobilizes new-generation food technologies (foodtech) companies. Aiming to reverse the current picture, the food technology platform Çiftçi Gurme explains the share of agricultural products in our country's total exports. In addition to R&D studies, it carries out strategic collaborations that will improve the ecosystem to increase the number of products produced in farms, gardens, and fields, which it owns or manages, by transforming them into value-added products and delivering them to global markets.

Ozan Inan, one of the Founding Partners of Ciftci Gourmet, stated that while they aimed to increase the production of high-value-added gastronomic products in a controlled manner by combining agricultural technology with the food sector, and thus increase the share of food in exports, they included selected cooperatives and small-scale producers in the market, and said: “We turn technology into an advantage to discover the best of vegetables, fruits, meat, and dairy products grown in the abandoned lands, and to find flavors that have not been noticed yet and deliver them to consumers. We offer unique products to local and global markets through our platform that integrates agriculture with technology in farms, gardens, and fields, especially in Çanakkale, where we have the right to own and manage. In this context, in addition to continuing our R&D activities, we provide a competitive advantage in the sector by making strategic collaborations and support sustainability in agriculture by strengthening networks at all stages from production to logistics.”

Established a gastronomy bridge between manufacturers and global markets

Ozan Inan, one of the Founding Partners of Ciftci Gurme, said that thanks to their cooperation, they have integrated the farmers into the value chain and shared the following information about their agreement: “As a new-generation food technology company, we added value to the businesses of all producers, especially small-scale farmers, by working with cooperatives apart from the farms we own. We are establishing a sustainable gastronomy bridge with established standards that enables them to open doors to global markets. In this context, we strengthen our ecosystem with our business partnerships with Çanakkale Bayramiç Exchange Cooperative and Artizan Vera, one of the new-generation chefs of our region in prescription. We achieve economies of scale and direct planned production thanks to our joint financing models with Çanakkale Bayramiç Exchange Cooperative. With Artizan Vera, we obtain recipes that create world brands and new commercial relations. With all these efforts, we help local producers to standardize their business processes and grow while delivering high-quality agricultural flavors grown in our fertile lands to new markets.”

"We are separating the production line for women"

Chief Vera Didem Piyan stated that the entire process, from value analysis to production activities and delivering high-value-added final products to the market, is managed more accurately and effectively, “We believe in the continuity of learning and development. That's why we see that women have not yet found the place they deserve in the economic chart, and we allocate our production line to women. We fund our earnings from these lands as educational support for girls, who are the future of our country, by making positive discrimination and a certain percentage of every product sold.”

They ensure the continuity of agricultural supply.

Çanakkale Bayramiç Exchange Cooperative President Coşkun Yılmaz said: "Recently, the increase in fertilizer and production costs, the distribution of profits in sales chains, and the difficulties in reaching new markets caused agricultural productivity to decrease. We support small-scale producers regarding knowledge, experience, and finances. We increase the efficiency of production." used the phrases.

They will focus on global markets next year

Stating that they aim to become a leading brand positioned according to the local tastes of the agriculture and food sector in global markets by focusing on technology and R&D studies in the future, Çiftçi Gurme Managing Partner Orçun Özalp shared the following information regarding their 2023 plans: “Next year, we will focus more on foreign sales channels. In this context, we will develop our platform in such a way that we can manage food production, processing, and food retailing end-to-end. We will set an example in the field of food tech, which stands out in the field of Agriculture 4.0, by processing and developing data in clean agriculture. We will accelerate our efforts to bring awards to our country in permacultural agriculture and global competition with gastronomic products.”