Turkish mercantile exchange and licensed warehousing system: Case of Eskişehir

Since agriculture is the most basic source of food, it has never lost its importance throughout history and has always been considered as a sensitive and strategic sector all over the world. At the same time, food safety has been one of the most important parameters of the agricultural products market for every country without exception, including the most developed ones. In this context, the two most important factors that take the pulse of agriculture in developed and developing countries are licensed warehousing and mercantile exchange of agricultural products. Licensed warehousing system is a system in which agricultural products are analyzed and stored insured in warehouses with modern infrastructure. Mercantile Exchange of agricultural products is an electronic platform where the agricultural products stored in licensed warehouses are offered for sale through product certificates representing the ownership, and where buyers and sellers are brought together within the framework of an efficient market. In this study, data were collected by semi-structured interview method in order to get the opinions of the stakeholders in Eskişehir about the current situation, expectations and what can be done for the development of the system regarding the licensed warehousing and mercantile exchange, which is brand new in our country. In this direction, meetings were held with TMEX and licensed warehouses, agency, traders and farmers in Eskişehir. The data obtained, on the other hand, were reduced to common expressions by determining the conceptual framework and evaluated with the interpretation technique that includes description and systematic analysis.