Milling and Grain magazine has recently opened a new office in Eskişehir, Turkey. Mehmet Ugur Gürkaynak has been appointed to run the new office and will continue in his role of editor for the Turkish language edition of the magazine.
Mehmet has been involved in the milling industry since 2005, and although he has only been in his new position with Milling and Grain for less than six months, he is already making a big impact on the reach and content for our Turkish language edition.
Perendale is vey grateful to have to a such a dynamic, committed and professional employee representing us in Turkey, a country that is fast becoming a major power in the industry.
How did you get involved in the milling industry? What did you do before?
Before this job, I was consulting companies about foreign sales and marketing, consulting in customs processes, management and public relations. I got involved in the milling industry in 2005 via a private company, located in Turkey, producing rollermill rolls for the flour and feed mills, alongside for coffee, oilseeds, chocolate, plastic, steel and iron industries. Because of these rolls being the most important part in the rollermill and the mass demand for the worldwide, it gave me the opportunity to come together with most of the machine manufacturers and to make a lot of friends around the world.
Turkey is fast becoming a major player in the world-wide milling industry. What do see for the future?
Turkey is in a very strong position because of its being a bridge between the West and the East. Turkey is one of the biggest suppliers for the Middle and Far East, and for the Turkish Republics and African countries.
For the last six years, Turkey has been the biggest exporter of flour. It produces 30 percent of the world’s annual need, which means over $1 billion USD annually. The main cities in Turkey, which do the highest amounts, about flour exports are Mardin, Istanbul, Gaziantep, Kırklareli and Samsun.
Although Iraq’ s tax increase of £46 per ton for Turkish food products and the cooperation between Russia and Iran about buying wheat from Russia and exporting to Iraq, Turkey is still the main actor in the flour milling business.
Tell us a little about the new Perendale office you opened.
Our Perendale Milling and Grain Office is located in Eskisehir, which is about two hours and thirty minutes from our capital city Ankara, and three hours and thirty minutes to Istanbul by highway. It is also possible to reach Eskisehir via high-speed train. It takes 1 hour and 30 minutes to Ankara or Konya, and 1 hour 45 minutes to Istanbul.
Our office is in the city centre with a nice corner view!
You recently visited some major Turkish milling companies accompanied by Perendale’s Company President Darren Parris. Which companies did you visit?
Our visits started in Ankara and followed as Aksaray, Konya and finished in Eskisehir. It took nine days and we visited 35 companies in total ranging from Nasa, Meko, Bastak, Aybakar, Çift Kartal, Mysilo, Genç Degirmen, Yenkar, Imas, Molino, Entil, Selis, Ortas, Özen Degirmen, Sagbili Packaging, Necdet Kaya Degirmen, ATS Makine and more.
It was a very good trip. We had the opportunity to see our friends in the industry and to discuss the market, hear the problems that they are facing, learn their needs and inform them about how our services can help solve their problems and make matters easier for them.
How is the ongoing currency crisis affecting the Turkish milling industry?
Raw material and petrol prices have increased in a short time. Consequently, this has affected the companies who rely upon raw materials which are imported via foreign currency.
Although the amount of the foreign currency in the circle has not changed, psychologically, the US currency value especially has increased.
How can millers work with the government to overcome this problem?
People in Turkey changed their US Dollars to Turkish Lira. Thanks to the strong banking system in Turkey and the government acting, the strong US Dollar weakened in five to six days. Turkey made some agreements with foreign countries about working on related currency instead of US Dollars. Katar, Azerbajan, Pakistan, Italy, Germany, France, Russia and Iran announced their support of Turkey. Katar decided to make an investment in Turkey which has a value of over £11 billion. In Pakistan, alongside some other Arab countries, people changed their US Dollars to Turkish Liras in support.
How do you think the Turkish issue of Milling and Grain benefits the Turkish milling community?
The biggest advantage of Milling and Grain is having offices around the World: The United States, South America, New Zealand, China, France, Africa, Turkey and, of course, the United Kingdom as our central office. This gives the power to Milling and Grain to obtain the news directly from the region, participating fairs and conferences everywhere, meeting customers at their factories and informing other offices around the world with accurate information.
As is well known, Milling and Grain is printed in English, Turkish, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic and French. Publishing in the language of the country helps to reach each person, especially those who cannot speak another language.
In this way, companies in the industry can express themselves to other countries in their own languages and can conduct more business.
What are the areas of milling most likely to develop in Turkey over the coming years and why?
Turkey has good quality, high tech products in the flour and feed milling business. A lot of them have started giving importance in the last years to R & D, and the Turkish government is giving support to the companies which would like to invest in this field.
Do you have any upcoming projects that you are excited about?
As a player coming from the manufacturing side, I feel the responsibility to introduce the Turkish flour and feed milling industry to the world market and improve the relations between Turkish and other countries’ companies.
