Agribusiness in the Turkish economy

Abstract

Agribusiness has made many important contributions to the Turkish economy. These contributions related to meeting of the nation's food demand, creating added value, increasing and diversifying exports and increasing employment. While the relative importance of the Turkish agriculture sector decreases over the years, in the economy, agribusiness still preserves its place and developments. This paper assesses the contribution of agribusiness to the economy during the period 1994-2004, in terms of production and export values and the firms working in this area. Within the agribusiness, the most stable and best-developed industries were food and textile in the period concerned. Changes in the economy influences agribusiness but the basic problem that affects it is development is the integration with the agricultural sector. That is the downstream relations, which is not the desired level at all.