Another Turkish market closed for Turkish tomatoes. The Iraqi authorities decided to suspend imports of tomatoes from a neighboring country to protect their own agricultural producers. This is reported by Hurriyet Daily News with reference to the official statement of the Ministry of Economy of Turkey.
It is reported that the ban on imports was introduced by the Ministry of Agriculture of Iraq since May 21, 2017. This measure is caused by the beginning of the harvest season with local tomato producers. According to Iraqi officials, the domestic market needs in tomatoes this year will satisfy farmers in the provinces of Najaf and Karbala.
Iraq's share in previous years accounted for about 20-25% of Turkey's tomato exports. This brought Turkey annually from $ 80 million to $ 100 million. Last year, the volume of tomato trade amounted to $ 88 million.
As the newspaper notes, the closure of the Iraqi market will turn into serious problems for Turkish farmers due to the fact that agricultural producers from this country are still unable to send goods to Russia.
Turkey is one of the four largest exporters of tomatoes in the world. For the country this is a very important income item. After the suspension of trade relations with the Russian Federation, the sale of Turkish tomatoes abroad was reduced by more than a third, from $ 365.3 million in 2015. Up to $ 239.9 million in 2016. The Russians ate about 70% of Turkish tomatoes grown for export, worth about $ 250 million a year.
Approximately half the volume of tomatoes that was usually supplied to Russia could be distributed to other countries, mainly to Iraq, Belarus, Georgia and Saudi Arabia. After the termination of deliveries to Iraq the Turkish agricultural producers will incur huge losses. The harvested crop will simply have nowhere to put.
Relations between Moscow and Ankara have significantly warmed recently: this improvement was recorded at a meeting of the two presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Erdogan May 3 in Sochi. However, visa restrictions apply to Turkish citizens in the Russian Federation. The issues of bilateral trade have not been resolved either. At the meeting with Erdogan, Putin made it clear that trade restrictions (including on tomatoes) will continue for some time. This is necessary to protect the interests of Russian farmers. The exact dates of the lifting of the embargo, the leaders did not specify.
The stumbling block in the "tomato" issue is the unfriendly policy of the Turkish authorities towards Russian agricultural products. Ankara introduced increased import duties for domestic cereals, which made Russian wheat non-competing in the Turkish market.
In the government of the Russian Federation, the abolition of restrictions on the supply of tomatoes was severely tied with the cancellation of duties on Russian products.
"For us, the issue of lifting grain restrictions is unconditional. Without this, in general, there will be no action on our part. Without lifting the ban on grain, even the chances that we will take something off are not there, "Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich told journalists in April.