An overview of the Turkish dairy sector

Abstract

The livestock sector and dairy subsector have great importance for Turkey, in terms of both nutrition and economy. The share of the livestock sector in the total agricultural production value has varied between 25% and 30% in the last three decades. Raw milk production is characterized by small‐scale farms, with an average of three heads of dairy cattle per farm. Turkey's dairy industry was established and developed by the State with the opening of the Turkish Dairy Industry Institution (TSEK) in 1963 as a state‐owned enterprise (SOE). TSEK facilitated modernization of the sector, created a dairy market and played a role in stabilizing the consumer and producer prices. In 1995, a liberalization movement in the agricultural sector started in Turkey and the TSEK enterprises were privatized. After privatization, producer prices decreased between 11.51% and 18.45% and consumer prices of dairy products increased in general. Today, the dairy processing sector has a dual structure that on one hand comprises many small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises, while on the other features seven large holding companies that hold the largest market share (CR4 71). This study aims to show that the restructuring of the agricultural SOEs in the first place resulted in undesirable impacts, and thus that the planning and implementation of the privatization of the state enterprises in the dairy sector should be taken as a strategy in the medium term, using the experiences of other developing countries.