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‘EBK determined to keep prices at reasonable levels’
Speaking to the Anatolia news agency on Thursday, Ulubaş said the EBK will not allow such speculative movements and it will not hesitate to use its recently acquired permission to import 100,000 tons of livestock from abroad to keep prices at reasonable levels.
As a measure to protect animal breeding and the presence of livestock in the country, Turkey has applied a ban on livestock imports. However, the government has allowed the state’s meat producing company, EBK, to temporarily import meat in the hope that this will regulate the market and stop excessive price hikes.
The EBK organized two tenders in May to purchase 8,000 tons of livestock for slaughtering and another 4,000 tons for nurturing. Meat prices started falling the day the tenders took place, before any cattle was even brought to the market.
He complained about renewed speculation that the EBK had stopped buying cattle from abroad after seeing prices fall sufficiently. “This is not true,” he said, explaining that a total of 3,000 heads of imported livestock had been slaughtered since the day the imports were launched. Currently, around 4,000 heads of cattle have entered the country. They are slaughtered after resting in barns for two days, he said.
He maintains that the speculation mechanism is run by large animal breeding farms in the eastern and Central Anatolian regions. Over 50 companies possess more than 1,000 heads of cattle and a few others have nearly 50,000 heads of livestock on their farms, Ulubaş said. “Those who first started the speculation intend to continue to do so by purchasing cattle in various provinces at prices higher than their actual market value,” he explained.
The general manager admitted the dangers of continued imports in the domestic animal breeding sector and guaranteed that purchases from abroad will stop once the market removes the effects of speculation from prices and finds its point of equilibrium.
There are two shipments of livestock en route to Turkey, one carrying 8,500 heads of cattle and the other 3,500.
Sector representatives believe the decision to buy more livestock from abroad will this time be enough to end the effect of speculation on the prices. İzmir Chamber of Butchers President Aydın Mestanlı said the prices were back at TL 16 per kilogram after having fallen to TL 13 following the first wave of imports, but the latest decision to allow the intake of 100,000 tons of animals will push the prices down to at least TL 13 per kilogram again. He also said a few companies had started speculating that the decision to import livestock was nothing but a bluff by the government.
Elsewhere, İstanbul Chamber of Commerce (İTO) President Murat Yalçıntaş also commented on the import decision. He said the government’s move is an accurate and correct decision to stem the rise of meat prices. However, he added, it has to institute an alternative plan immediately since imports alone are not a sustainable solution.
In a written statement on Thursday, Yalçıntaş drew attention to the possible hazardous effects of continuing the imports, such as increasing the country’s dependence on foreign breeders to the detriment of domestic animal husbandry businesses. He said imports should halt once the market regains its balance.
However, until equilibrium is found between actual demand and supply, private companies must also be allowed to import livestock.
“It would also be appropriate to allow private companies that have sufficient knowledge, infrastructure and experience to import. Considering the diminishing number of livestock assets in Turkey, a set of strategies needs to be developed to prevent the existing cattle numbers from falling and to increase them,” he said.
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