Mersin Chamber of Commerce and Adana Chamber of Commerce representatives organized a meeting to assess the impact of Turkish state-initiative greenhouse company Sera A.S. on the industry and other growers.
The representatives explained that Sera A.S. is currently buying products from the growers directly and sells it to the supermarkets it has agreements with. The representatives pointed out that this trade flow could soon create a monopoly in the market and disrupt the market equilibrium.
The representatives added: “The company started to make business connections abroad as well, and soon that will put a lot of exporters out of business. The state has chosen this method to fight against the high prices of fresh produce at the retailers, however now it is becoming a competitor of domestic growers and disrupting the market. Currently growers, middlemen, and exporters are all facing major challenges because of the state-owned Sera A.S. Now the fruit and vegetable wholesale halls are also being put out of commission so we don’t know how the price will be set in the market place anymore.
"We believe a central organization like this would be inefficient in controlling and optimizing production. Each region in Turkey should have an umbrella greenhouse company organizing greenhouse production and sales of the products coming from that region. We believe this will be much more efficient.”
Source: Mersin Haberci