Turkey is home to 12,000 plant varieties. Through medicinal and aromatic herbs, Turkey has a serious economic opportunity. However, just like with many agricultural products, Turkey is not translating this potential into economic value.
According to industry representatives, misguided policies concerning imports caused an increase in prices both on the domestic market and with exports. In 2014 Turkey realised 30 million dollars of imports and 150 million dollars of exports, which is far from the potential 850 million Euro they could be earning.
General manager of Aktar Gida Erhan Yalin, a herbs and spices supplier, describes the situation: “Turkey has serious potential for herbs and spices cultivation, in terms of geography and climate, but the opportunity is not being taken. Unfortunately, planned, organized, and conscious production is not the case here.”
Turkey mostly produces thyme, sage, bay leaf, white poppy seed, cumin, mint and pepper. In terms of production, Turkey is the world leader for several herbs. Yet due to its location, Turkey is of course forced to import certain herbs and spices, such as cinnamon and ginger. Customs charges on these products range between 30-50%.
Yalin explains: “This is a rather large sector. We’re talking about an almost 850 million Euro market. We don’t have a presence on the packaged market abroad because 50% of our portfolio is imported and subject to high customs duties. The customs duty on these types of products in the USA, Europe and Middle Eastern countries is zero.”
Chairman of the Spice Export Growers Association of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants (TABDER) Ayhan Ercan, also comments on the subject. According to him, aside from thyme, many products cannot be sold outside of Turkey, “This is because most firms, especially in Europe want to sell all of the spice varieties together in one packaged range. While Turkey has the advantage in terms of prices of local products, the 30-50% customs charge means that we lose our competitive advantage in a package of 8-10 varieties.” If these export problems can be solved, Ercan believes that Turkey could rapidly double the current 150 million dollar exports.
Pamukkale University Department of Biology, Faculty of Science Prof. Dr. Ali Celik states: “Despite Spain not having as much flora as us, they are earning $35 billion annually, Italy $12 billion, while Iran has revenues of $8 billion, only 4,200 out of 12,000 varieties are cultivated in Turkey, with studies and targeted projects we could create an annual revenue of about 100 billion dollars.”
