The opening of the International Food and Beverage Fair "Foodist Istanbul" was held at Tüyap Congress and Fair Center with the participation of Minister of Agriculture and Forestry İbrahim Yumaklı, Minister of Trade Ömer Bolat, President of the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TİM) Mustafa Gültepe and sector representatives.
The fair, which is organized with the support of the Federation of Turkish Food and Beverage Industry Associations, TİM Cereals, Pulses, Oilseeds and Products Sector Board and its affiliates Istanbul, Southeastern Anatolia, Aegean, Mediterranean, Black Sea, Central Anatolia Exporters' Associations and Out-of-Home Consumption Suppliers Association, is organized in cooperation with Tüyap Fair Organization Group and ALZ Group.
The fair, which includes more than 1000 participating companies from home and abroad, is expected to host approximately 70 thousand professional visitors from 150 countries in an exhibition area of 120 thousand square meters.
Minister Yumaklı, in his speech at the opening, stated that when we look at the developments in the world, we are witnessing one of the important breaking points in human history, global climate change, extreme weather events, geopolitical tensions, problems in supply chains, rising input costs, fertilizer crises and the rapidly increasing world population.
Stating that the agriculture and food sector went beyond being a classical field of economic activity in this period, Yumaklı said, "Agriculture and food are a direct matter of national security and survival today. As a matter of fact, the rising food nationalism in the world and the desire of countries to protect their own resources are the clearest indicators of this." he said.
Yumaklı said that considering the rate of population growth and urbanization, projections of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) show that much more food will be needed in 2050 than what is produced today.
"WE WANT TO TRANSFORM Türkiye'S PRODUCTION POWER, QUALITY AND RELIABILITY INTO A GLOBAL BRAND VALUE"
Minister Yumaklı said that they are not satisfied with the current successes, that delivering what is produced to the world is as important as producing, and therefore they attach great importance to exporters' access to new markets.
Stating that, while increasing their production power on the one hand, they removed the technical obstacles to the products and opened the doors of new markets with the intense negotiations they carried out, Yumaklı said, "We want the labor of Turkish farmers to be on the shelves all over the world. We want to transform Türkiye's production power, quality and reliability into a global brand value." he said.
Yumaklı stated that they started to get concrete results of the agricultural diplomacy they carried out in this direction, and that they paved the way for almonds to enter the Chinese market, as well as seafood products such as salmon, sea bream and sea bass.
Stating that they are advancing the process that will pave the way for the export of poultry meat products to China, Yumaklı said, "We continue our technical work to make our cherry exports more effective. We continue our work to pave the way for new markets for our products such as figs, grapes, pomegranates and apples. On the other hand, we are accelerating the approval processes of our enterprises in many fields, from fresh fruits and vegetables to aquatic products, from dairy products to poultry, and we continue our work to strengthen the position of our exporters in the Russian market." he said.
Yumaklı said that they are determinedly carrying out studies in the fields of food safety, plant and animal health, traceability and certification in order to ensure the sustainability of exports in traditional markets, especially the European Union.
Stating that there is another important opportunity in the new period, Yumaklı stated that the reactivation of Türkiye's land connection extending from Syria to Jordan and from there to the Gulf countries will provide an important logistics advantage, especially for fresh fruits and vegetables and products with short shelf lives.
Minister Yumaklı stated that the Turkey-Syria-Jordan-Saudi Arabia transit corridor started to operate as of April 15, 2026, and that with the effective use of this line, manufacturers will have a new trade route that can deliver their products to the Gulf markets in a much shorter time.
Stating that they aim to bring the labor of the producers together not only with Türkiye's 86 million citizens but also with consumers all over the world, Yumaklı said, "We want to make Türkiye one of the world's important production and export centers of quality, reliable and competitive food, making the best use of the opportunities of its geography." he said.
"WE WILL PUT 4 MORE OTBs INTO PRODUCTION BY THE END OF THE YEAR"
Referring to Organized Agricultural Zones (OTB), which are of critical importance in terms of agriculture-industry integration, Yumaklı stated that they bring together the uninterrupted power of geothermal energy with greenhouses in Greenhouse Organized Agricultural Zones, and that they contribute to the development of regions where animal husbandry is strong with Livestock Organized Agricultural Zones.
Stating that they have given legal entity to 46 OTBs so far, Yumaklı said, "Production has started in 16 OTBs. We will bring 4 more OTBs into production by the end of the year. On the other hand, with the grants and incentives in our rural development investments, we support investments in different areas of our food industry, from rural production to processing and packaging. With these investments, we will increase the number of our globally recognized brands, just like our 46 EU geographical indication registered products." he said.
Yumaklı pointed out the importance of safe food and said that they started the QR code application so that citizens can quickly access the inspection history of food consumption places and made it mandatory for certain businesses.
Stating that they intensified inspections from pre-harvest to post-harvest, from markets to mass consumption and sales places, Yumaklı said:
"We have come a long way with the measures we have taken, especially B-Prescription. We continue our policies that prioritize biological and biotechnical control instead of chemical methods in the fight against pests. The 75 percent decrease in the number of RASFF notifications in the last 4 years shows that we are on the right track in this field. However, we also know that we have a lot of work to do. Because our goal is not only to produce safe food today, but also to transform the reliability of Turkish agricultural products into a strong brand value in the world markets. In this direction, health certificate with QR code, approved operating procedures and similar innovative practices "We aim to create a more reliable, more traceable and higher quality food system in both import and export processes. We are implementing all these regulations together with the stakeholders of our sector. I would like to thank our food and beverage industrialists, producer and exporter associations, non-governmental organizations and all our stakeholders who contribute to these studies."
