Turkey taking steps to minimize food price fluctuations

ANKARA: Turkey is taking necessity steps to minimize the fluctuations in food prices, the agriculture and forestry minister said on Tuesday.

Hosted at Anadolu Agency’s Editor’s Desk, Bekir Pakdemirli said: "We aim to double greenhouse fields in Turkey.”

"Thus, we will manage to minimize food price fluctuations," he stated.

According to latest data from the Turkish Statistical Institute, annual inflation in food and non-alcoholic beverages stood at 30.97 percent.

Last year, the lowest annual increase in food and non-alcoholic beverages was posted in January with 8.76 percent while the highest was registered in October, rising 29.26 percent.

Turkish agri-operators suffered from floods hitting greenhouse fields in country's southern part over the last couple of months.

On the meat sales in Turkey, Pakdemirli said the stocks is enough to meet the demand.

The meat import is not on the agenda in the short term, he said, “If need be, we can import meat." Asked about the controlled cannabis production, Pakdemirli said Turkey should set aggressive goals and absolutely stick to them.

"We are preparing an action plan on it. We took necessary steps and we will continue to do so," he said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan recently announced that 19 Turkish cities were authorized for cannabis seeding, which is used in several industrial fields such as automotives, wood, construction, textiles, cosmetics, biodiesel, food, and paper.

Since the 1990s, cannabis seeding has been limited in order not to allow the production of marijuana.