The Sera A.S. project initiated by the government is rumored to change the entire agricultural landscape in Turkey and the details of the project will be announced soon. The project was announced by the Ministry of Finance and Treasury Berat Albayrak in April and the initial plans indicate that the state-owned greenhouse company’s production area will be around 2.000 hectares in the first phase and will reach to 5.000 hectares in the near future.
The company headquarters will be in Ankara and is aimed to increase agricultural efficiency in Turkey. Another important goal of the project is to lower the price difference between the grower and retailer and prevent the public dissatisfaction which was created in recent years due to the high prices of fresh produce.
In recent years, due to the natural disasters in greenhouse production areas, there was a supply shortage of various fruits and vegetables. Additional some middlemen also took advantage of the situation by stocking products and exacerbated the shortage supply which in turn of artificially increased prices of main staple fresh products such as tomato, potato, and onion.
In reaction to this problem, the government started to offer low-interest credits through state banks to growers so they can modernize and rebuild their greenhouses. Therefore the project will not only include the construction of new greenhouses but also the modernization of the old ones. One of the aims of the project is to bring back the growers to agricultural production after thousands of growers stopped their production in recent years due to financial difficulties.
New greenhouses are being built on suitable treasury lands thus the state actively becomes a grower itself. The project also includes deals with purchase guarantees for growers and the elimination of the middlemen from the supply chain in order to prevent the increase of the prices. With the purchase guarantee, the sales will be directly made from the grower to the retailer and the supply chain will be much shorter and more cost- and price-efficient.
Source: Takvim