Turkey’s Major Industries – Agriculture
With Turkey’s large expanse of fertile land, it’s no surprise that agriculture is one of the prime industries of the country. Turkey itself is self-sufficient, a title which not many countries can lay claim to! The soil, climate, and the rainfall during the winter months, which is also plentiful during the summer in the centre of the country, means that all manner of different crop types and fruits can be grown within the country.
Agriculture is big business all over the country, although the eastern parts of the country are quite mountainous, so this doesn’t lend itself to agricultural growth as much as some of the other, flatter parts of the country. In these regions, it is more about animals than crops, with 1/4th the gross agricultural income of the country.
Of course, Turkey is also a large country, and around three quarters of the land’s agricultural production is from vegetables. In addition to this, forestry, animal husbandry and fishing also make up the rest. As of 2015, Turkey leads the world in hazelnut, fig, apricot and raisin production Turkey was also the 10th biggest for cotton production, the 8th for heat, and 6th for tobacco. These all count towards the country’s large agricultural income, as well as being a big industry for tea production, exporting its own brands across the globe.
As with most countries, Turkey went through a large period of industrialisation, and this caused the agricultural section to decline somewhat. IN the 90s however, more focus was put on bringing this back to the fore, and there were several projects put into place to ensure that agricultural remained a big player, and therefore a big income for the country. One of the most famous products is GAP, the Southeast Anatolia Project.
Turkey’s biggest exports of agricultural products include:
- Cereals
- Pulses
- Crops
- Sugar
- Nuts
- Fruits, both fresh and dried
- Vegetables
- Olive oil
- Products from animals
These are all grown locally and shipped out worldwide, with the EU, USA, and the Middle Eastern neighbours being the biggest buyers of Turkish products. To really highlight how important the agricultural industry is in Turkey, around 21% of the country’s population was employed in this sector in 2014, and the amount of cash coming into the country from these exports is more than $17 billion. You can therefore stay that alongside tourism, agriculture is one of Turkey’s biggest income areas.
As the world becomes more environmentally friendly, and because Turkey has long sought after EU membership, the country has been forced to change some of its practices to become more green. Several schemes are now in place for farmers, who receive premiums for fuel support, fertilisers, and also to hep purchase machinery to bring the country in line with the latest farming technology and environmental practices. The hope is that as the years tick by, the country will be an even bigger world player on the agricultural scene, and with the abundance of lush, fertile lands which belongs to Turkey, it looks more and more likely that this will indeed be the case.
