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Turkey and South Korea concluded a wide-scope cooperation agreement in the field of agriculture. With this agreement, which is significant in terms of being the first agreement concluded in between the two countries in this field, Turkey aims at closing the trade deficit in between with the agricultural product exportation to South Korea. Minister Eker drawing attention to the change that is undergone by the Far East countries in food consumption, said that they would do the marketing of primarily olive oil and meat and milk products and organic products within the framework of this agreement.

An agricultural cooperation agreement was signed between Mehdi Eker, the Minister of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and his counterpark Suh Kyu-Yung, the Minister of Agriculture of South Korea. In the ceremony held at the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, the Minister Eker and the guest minister assessed the agreement. Eker stating that he had invited Minister Yung to Turkey during the visit he paid to South Korea on June 22, expressed his satisfaction for his invitation being accepted after a short while. Minister Eker conveying that they had concluded a technical cooperation agreement in between the two countries during this visit, emphasized that agriculture would be included in the bond of love and economic cooperation in many fields in between the two countries from now on.

Eker, assessing the economic value in between the two countries, drew attention to the fact that agriculture occupied only a portion of 53 million dollar of a trading volume of 6.8 billion dollar. Eker, stating that the agricultural product exportation amounted to 44 million 420 thousand dollar and the importation to 8 million 690 thousand dollar, underlined that the capacity of the two countries was more than this amount.

“MEAT AND MILK PRODUCTS STARTED TO REPLACE THE RICE CONSUMPTION OF THE KOREAN PUBLIC”

Eker, drawing attention to the fact that South Korea is one of the biggest economies of the world, said that it has a significant potential particularly in terms of agricultural product importation. Eker, telling that there had been important change in the daily nutrition of the Korean public recently, the rice consumption was replaced by the meat and milk products, fruit and flour products recently and Turkey may have an important part at this point.

Minister Eker said that with the cooperation agreement concluded for the first time, information exchange on internal and external agricultural policies and rural development policies, sharing of experience for development of agriculture and relevant industries, exchange of technical knowledge and experts, sharing of information on processing, distribution and marketing of agricultural products and organization of activities of symposiums, seminars, fairs and exhibitions were aimed.

“WE WILL ATTAIN A SIGNIFICANT SYNERGY WITH TURKEY”

On the other hand, Suh Kyu-Yung, the Minister of Agriculture of Korea, by drawing attention to the significance of this cooperation agreement signed following the free trade agreement with Turkey, emphasized that Turkey has a wide territory and proper climate conditions; therefore they could be important partners in the field of agriculture. The Korean minister underlined that they would be able to attain a significant synergy with the agricultural experience of Turkey and joining of their own technology.