Mapping The Turkish Agricultural Cooperatives Ecosystem
An Introduction to Turkish Agricultural Cooperatives
by Yekta Kuseyrioğlu
Understanding the Sector
As Kök Projekt, we are passionate about the agriculture sector. We conduct researches, prepare reports, and create databases to understand the world of agriculture. We are an agri-food startup accelerator and an innovation partner for the food, agriculture, and water sector companies. We acknowledge that it’s essential to know each stakeholder in the sector.
Therefore, we’ve been sharing the Turkish Agriculture Ecosystem Maps in the last months. As we’ve also shared the Turkish Food Ecosystem map at the end of August this year.
Now, we decided to dive into agricultural cooperatives as they have an essential role in the sector, and we launched our first-ever map on 15th September 2020. The same day, we hosted the General Manager of TARNET and Group CFO of Tarım Kredi Holding and talked about the future of agriculture cooperatives.
Agricultural Cooperatives of Turkey: A History of more than 150 years
The creation of Agricultural Cooperatives in Turkey dates back to 1863 by the establishment of Memleket Sandıkları (Homeland Funds). Then, the number of cooperatives has increased significantly following the establishment of The Republic of Turkey.
When we look at the etymology of the word cooperative in the Oxford Dictionary, it comes from the Latin verb cooperari-which means worked together.
Agricultural cooperatives are an excellent example of working together and local solidarity. According to the report of The Ministry of Trade in 2016, in Turkey, there are 12.269 agricultural cooperatives, and these cooperatives have nearly four million participants.
Cooperatives are organizations formed by the economic units to cooperate and to establish common benefits in a particular area voluntarily(1).
They also contribute to economic growth. They have commercial and industrial investments. Some of them go from local solidarity to big companies. Today in Turkey, there are many of them. An excellent example of industrialized cooperatives is Marmarabirlik. Marmarabirlik was listed at Turkey’s top 500 Industrial Enterprises list prepared by the Istanbul Chamber of Industry (ISO500)(2). We can also mention Konya Şeker, an investment of the Pankobirlik-Beet Growers Association, which finds its place on the same list.
Understanding The Cooperatives
To understand the Turkish agricultural cooperatives scene, we started from the reports on the Cooperatives of Turkey prepared by the Ministry of Customs and Trade.
According to the report, agricultural cooperatives can be grouped under seven sections: PANKOBİRLİK-Beet Growers Cooperatives, Agriculture Credit Cooperatives, Agricultural Development Cooperatives, Agriculture Sales Cooperatives, Irrigation Cooperatives, Aquaculture Cooperatives, Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Marketing Cooperatives. For sourcing more information on them, we’ve also researched through their websites.
Quick Disclaimer
This is not an exhaustive list of all Turkish Agricultural Cooperatives.
You can reach our 2020 Turkish Agricultural Cooperatives Ecosystem Map here.
Below is an overview of each section
Agriculture Credit Cooperatives has 17 regional unions and 1.625 cooperatives across Turkey. It also has several groups of companies such as TARNET, TARKİM, Gübretaş, and more. Agriculture Credit Cooperatives meet Turkish farmers’ financial needs, contribute to price stability, market regulation, and promote sales of the products.
Pankobirlik-Beet Growers Cooperatives was established in 1972. It aims to develop and sustain the sugar industry in Turkey. Today Pankobirlik has 31 cooperatives around Turkey with more than 1,5 million participants. Pankobirlik is an important economic actor. It has sugar factories and several associations that we have put on our map.
Agriculture Sales Cooperatives provide agricultural inputs to their partners and ensure that their partners’ products are marketed as raw or processed. According to the report of the Ministry of Customs and Trade, there are 306 sales cooperatives in Turkey. When we look at the agriculture sales cooperatives, we see regional establishments. In the Aegean region, Tariş specialized in fig, grape, olive, olive oil, and cotton. In the Mediterranean Region, there are Çukobirlik and AntBirlik, which focus on oily seeds, cotton, and citrus. In Black Sea Region, we see cooperatives specialized in nuts Fiskobirlik and Karadenizbirlik. In Marmara Region, there are Marmarabirlik, Kozabirlik, and Trakyabirlik, which are specialized in olive, olive oil, silk, and sunflower oil. In Central Anatolia, there are Taskobirlik, Gülbirlik, and, Tiftikbirlik which focus on the grape, rose oil, rose water, and angora sheep.
Agricultural Development Cooperatives: In this section, we put the main central unions of agricultural development cooperatives according to their primary service area. The report of the Ministry of Customs and Trade indicates that among the agricultural cooperatives, “Agricultural Development Cooperatives” has the largest number of cooperatives with 7.201 cooperatives.
There are also Irrigation Cooperatives, Aquaculture Cooperatives, Fresh Fruit, and Vegetable Marketing Cooperatives. You can find the number of cooperatives and participants on our map.
We welcome your thoughts and look forward to publishing our next maps.
For any of your questions or feedback, you can shoot us an email to:
info@kokprojekt.com
(Written and Prepared by Yekta Kuseyrioğlu)
Sources
· Erbay R, Tulgar D., 2017 03, Balkan ve Yakın Doğu Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, Sürdürülebilir Kalkınmada Bir Ekonomik Model Olarak Sanayiye Entegre Olmuş Kooperatifler,
http://www.ibaness.org/bnejss/2017_03_special_issue/18_Erbay_and_Tulgar.pdf
· Türkiye Kooperatifçilik Raporu, 2016, T.C. Gümrük ve Ticaret Bakanlığı, 2017
http://koop.gtb.gov.tr/data/592ea2dd1a79f514ac499aae/TKR-2016-2017%200804-BASIM.pdf
· Türkiye’nin 500 Büyük Sanayi Kuruluşu, 2019
http://www.iso500.org.tr/500-buyuk-sanayi-kurulusu/2019/?ara=&year=2019&langId=1&sayfa=9
[1] Erbay R, Tulgar D., 2017 03, Balkan ve Yakın Doğu Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, Sürdürülebilir Kalkınmada Bir Ekonomik Model Olarak Sanayiye Entegre Olmuş Kooperatifler, (Accessed; 19/09/2020). http://www.ibaness.org/bnejss/2017_03_special_issue/18_Erbay_and_Tulgar.pdf
[2] Türkiye’nin 500 Büyük Sanayi Kuruluşu 2019, (Accessed; 19/09/2020). http://www.iso500.org.tr/500-buyuk-sanayi-kurulusu/2019/?ara=&year=2019&langId=1&sayfa=9
