MP Gürer: “About 200,000 Tons of Potatoes Were Wasted in Niğde” – Lack of Planning Leads to Losses and Price Hikes
Ömer Fethi Gürer, MP for Niğde from the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and a member of the Parliamentary Commission on Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Affairs, has stated that approximately 200,000 tons of potatoes were discarded or used as animal feed in Niğde province alone last year, as farmers could not sell their produce even at 3 liras per kilogram. According to Gürer, this is a direct consequence of the absence of genuine production planning. Although the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has been claiming for nearly three years that it is working on production planning, the reality on the ground tells a different story. In years of oversupply, the market becomes saturated, farmers suffer losses and reduce plantings, while the following year shortages emerge, prices skyrocket, and Turkey is forced to rely on imports. Ultimately, only intermediaries and importers benefit, while farmers are driven to ruin and consumers can barely afford basic staples like onions and potatoes.
Gürer emphasized that true planning must go beyond merely forecasting planting volumes and should include developing storage infrastructure, introducing state purchase guarantees at prices that cover production costs and ensure a fair profit margin, and subsidizing key agricultural inputs—especially fertilizers—to reduce production costs. He called for a fundamental shift in Turkey’s agricultural policy away from favoring traders and importers toward supporting producers. Without real production planning, government purchase guarantees, proper storage facilities, and input cost support, the recurring cycle of “overproduction — crop destruction — shortages — price spikes” will continue to plague the agricultural sector, and the problems with potatoes and onions will remain unresolved.
