30.04.2025 Aydın Commodity Exchange Organized 2025 Livestock Sector Meeting

A meeting hosted by Aydın Commodity Exchange addressed challenges and solutions in the livestock sector, a key agricultural region in Turkey. The meeting included institution directors, chamber and exchange presidents, agricultural union leaders, sector representatives, and exchange members. Topics ranged from local production versus imports, financing, employment issues, rural development, to sustainability.

Fevzi Çondur, Chairman of Aydın Commodity Exchange, emphasized the strategic importance of livestock for Turkey’s economic growth, social welfare, and food security. He highlighted that Aydın ranks 4th in Turkey for culture breed cattle and 8th in overall cattle population, with significant increases in both cattle and small ruminant numbers over the past five years, though demand still outpaces supply.

In 2023, Turkey produced 2.38 million tons of red meat, 70% from cattle. Aydın saw a 4.43% increase in beef carcass trading from 2023 to 2024, with transaction volume reaching 902 million TRY. However, high feed costs—accounting for 60% of expenses—remain a major issue, forcing many producers to reduce livestock.

Milk production slightly increased by 1.04% to 635,184 tons in 2024, but persistently low prices have led producers to cull breeding animals, negatively impacting future production and increasing dependency on imports.

Additionally, the sector faces a shortage of skilled labor as young people leave rural areas, threatening production quality and sustainability. Çondur stressed the need to enhance vocational training and employment incentives in agriculture and livestock to address this problem.

Ibrahim Altıntaş, Director of Aydın Provincial Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry, highlighted ongoing projects led by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. Since 2022, the “Sustainability of Cattle Farms through the Use of Female Semen” project has aimed to produce high-quality breeding females and increase milk production in purebred farms, in partnership with district directorates and the Breeding Cattle Producers Association.

In 2023, under the “Milk Hygiene Training for Small Family Farms” project, hygiene kits were distributed to approximately 520 farms, and 1,000 farms received milking hygiene training. Additionally, the “Vaccinate Calves, Let Them Live Healthy” project focused on reducing calf mortality through education and vaccination campaigns, administering 44,743 doses of vaccine to pregnant animals in their last two months of gestation out of 47,170 doses provided.

Altıntaş emphasized ongoing vaccination and control programs to protect animal health, stating these efforts significantly contribute to the sustainability of the livestock sector.