Soybean production, consumption and marketing in Turkey

In this study, Turkey?s soybean market, production, consumption, foreign trade, demand, prices, policy and marketing are evaluated. Soybean production, which follows a fluctuating course with periodical increases and decreases, does not have a stable structure. Soybean production, which increased to 250,000 tons in 1987, decreased to 38,000 tons (15% level of the former) in 2009. If the reasons of decrease of soybean production are not considered, the deficit of vegetable oil and pulp, used as the source of protein in animal nutrition, will reach great dimensions, and the cultivation areas of soybean having habitats in many regions will decrease much more in coming years. By analyzing the data of 2000-2009, we can see that Turkey?s soybean prices showed an increase in real terms, and they were generally higher than world market prices in the same period. The most important reason of it is high input prices. In Turkey, soybean marketing organization has an efficient structure. Still, the efficiency of marketing may be increased much more with the solution of current problems.