Journalist Vahap Munyar from Dünya Newspaper, spoke with Hakan Göral on the activities and sectoral position of Tekfen Agri-Industry Group during the COVID-19 period and the company’s future plans.
Taking a look at the companies affiliated to the Group he led during the COVID-19 process, Hakan Göral, Vice President of TEKFEN Holding Agri-Industry Group and the Chairman of Toros Agri stated:
– Neither fertilizer nor other agricultural companies have stopped due to the pandemic. Production continued without interruption even during curfews.
He added that the importance of agriculture was better understood in this period:
– Countries tuned in to their own needs. The value of water and soil in our country has been ignored until today. However, in the 2030-2040 period, the cold war will be fought for food and access to food.
Göral underlined that agriculture started with seeds:
– We can no longer proceed with old-school methods in seeding. “It is time to move to the upper category and deploy modern seeding systems.”
We held a video conference with Göral to discuss Tekfen Agri-Industry’s position in the sector and the company’s future plans. He cited ‘wheat’ regarding seed practices:
– We have developed eight certified seeds in 10 years. Turkey has an average wheat yield of 300 kilos per decare. Using our seeds, we can produce 800-890 kilos per decare.
Göral also talked about the flagship of Tekfen Agri-Industry, ‘fertilizers’:
– In 2015, we made an additional fertilizer investment of 350 million dollars in the city of Samsun. We employed vertical integration in our facilities. We launched sulfuric acid and phosphoric acid plants.
Göral also pointed out to Toros Agri’s pace in fertilizer export:
– We export 450 thousand tons of fertilizers. Our income from fertilizer exports is 120 million dollars.
Emphasized that they acquired 70 percent of Gönen Renewable Energy:
– The facility generates 3 megawatts of electricity from organic waste. The resulting solid waste is transformed into organic fertilizer through different processes. This is mixed with a certain amount of chemical fertilizers to produce “organo-minerals”.
At this juncture, Göral focused on the effect of the decreasing organic content in the soil:
– When the organic content in the soil is below 2 percent, fertilizers don’t work. At this point, “organo-mineral fertilizers” can be effective.
He also talked about their new investment:
– In Meram, we are establishing the bigger brother of the facility in Gönen. With an investment of 35 million dollars, 7 megawatts of electricity will be produced from organic waste in Meram. 70 thousand tons of “organo-mineral fertilizer” will be produced in this facility annually.
He noted that the annual production in Gönen is 30 thousand tons:
– The sales figures of the “organo-mineral fertilizer” exceed our expectations. We can put on our agenda establishing at least one more similar facility.
Tekfen Holding entered the agriculture business with Toros in 1974. Starting with Tekfen Agricultural Research, followed by Alanar Fruit, and then Alanar Treelet, Agri-Industry Group’s turnover reached 4 billion TRY in 2019.
The group is taking steps to stand out from its competitors in agriculture…The importance given by the group to agriculture suits the mission undertaken by Nihat Gökyiğit, one of the founders of Tekfen and the founder of TEMA Foundation.
Alanar has 268 thousand trees; the company’s export sales reach 25 million dollars
I asked Hakan Göral, the Vice President of TEKFEN Holding Agri-Industry Group, about the cherry business they fostered by purchasing Alara Agriculture:
– Alanar has 268 thousand trees and their flagship produce is cherry. We also have figs, chestnuts, pomegranates and apricots.
A total of 12 thousand tons of cherries will be harvested this year. Of it, 20 percent is from our own garden, while 80 percent will be purchased. 90 percent of the cherries is exported.
Göral drew attention to their worry about closing the doors for a while due to the pandemic:
– When ‘food’ was determined as a priority sector, our concerns disappeared. Cherry export sales reach 25 million dollars.
About their goals about cherry, he stated:
– For keeping up the standard, we aim to grow 80 percent of the cherries in our own garden.
The first step in the potato business was a microscope; now we have 1.6 million tubers
Hakan Göral, Vice President of TEKFEN Holding Agri-Industry Group, stated that the first step in potato tubers was taken with a cellular procedure using a microscope:
– This year we produced 1.6 million tubers. We can have 15-16 thousand tons of potatoes from these tubers.
He reported that they keep the tubers in 15,000-ton capacity, modernized rock warehouses in Nevşehir:
– Our goal in potatoes is to reach 70-80 thousand tons.
We entered the sesame business as ‘second product’
The Vice President of Tekfen Holding Agri-Industry Group, Hakan Goral, pointed out that 160-170 thousand tons of sesame is consumed annually in Turkey:
– Turkey imports 145 thousand tons of sesame annually and pays 250 million dollars for this import. The imports mostly come from Africa.
He stated that they work with an Israeli company in the sesame business and cooperate with the Faculty of Agriculture of Akdeniz University:
– We registered a “national variety” of sesame. We developed the first and only type of sesame suitable for mechanical harvesting.
Göral noted that the harvest can be done with a modified combine harvester:
– Our goal in sesame is to reach 20 thousand tons of production in five years.
We also entered the ‘banana’ business where we grow the sapling
Hakan Göral, Vice President of TEKFEN Holding who is in charge of agricultural industry, emphasized that they have been growing banana saplings for a long time at their R&D center in the city of Adana:
– We had a place in the technopark; so we decided to go into banana production. We reserve some of the 400 thousand banana saplings we have grown and sell the rest.
Göral also stated that they have produced 102 tons of banana for now:
– We will invest towards growth in banana production. We are planning to go up to 500-600 tons.