Turkey announces new measures to ease food prices

ANKARA

Turkey will adjust a tax to bring down the cost of meat production and will require vegetable and fruit suppliers to conform to standards, the government’s food committee stated on Aug. 18, in a bid to tame volatile food prices.

Inflation in food prices spiked to an 8.5-year high of 11.87 percent earlier this year and economists have long said a drastic overhaul of the food supply chain is needed to contain food prices and keep inflation in check.

In a statement, the government’s food committee said it would adjust a customs tax on the raw materials used in animal feed to lower the cost of meat production. 

The supply chain for fresh fruits and vegetables would also be required to conform to standards, it said. 

“Measures toward minimizing the loss rates along the fresh fruit-vegetable supply chain, which have reached an average of 25-30 percent and thus led to a significant financial loss, and increasing the overall quality of logistics processes were discussed. In this framework, new standards were set concerning the packaging of products after harvest in single-use and reusable packages conforming to international norms, the transportation of products in refrigerated vehicles to improve the transport processes, and the display of products in refrigerated shelves in retail stores. Decisions were made regarding the transition to the mandatory implementation of these standards and the management of this transition process,” the committee stated.