“When Turkey gains a significant amount of its revenues from machinery manufacturing and technology, its competitiveness will draw global attention. Turkey is a country that is specialized in machinery manufacturing with a  robust technical and engineering knowledge. If our industrialists choose their solution partners among Turkish machinery manufacturers, they will be free from being foreign-dependent. They can develop in-house technologies. We want to see Turkey as a country exporting the technology rather than importing it.” Turkish Machinery Exporters Association (MAIB) members export machinery of more than 40 million dollars a day. They include machine manufacturers that produce machinery for bakery, biscuits and pasta sectors. Turkish machinery exports hit 11 billion dollars in 8 months of the year. This constitutes 10% of total exports and an increase of 16.6% according to the same period of the previous year. Major markets for Turkish machinery in this period were Germany, the USA and and the UK. Turkish machinery industry achieved to increase its market share at all developed countries. For instance exports to the USA and Russia by increased by 21.9% and 43.2% respectively. Let’s learn about the latest developments in the sector from Kutlu Karavelioğlu, the President of Machinery Exporters Association (MAIB). Our sector achieved to increase value of exports per kilogram from 5.7 dollars to 6.2 dollars last year. Machinery Exporters Association is constantly in touch with exporters in order to prevent possible problems in foreign trade and support our sector in international competition. We will not let importing countries to make use of depreciation of Turkish lira which may harm the brand strength of Turkish machinery. Our investments in advanced technology and innovation help our machinery to find their real value in the market. A clear indication for this is that our import value to the US has hit 14,3 dollars per kilogram . “LET’S EXPORT RATHER THAN IMPORT” We also want to see that Turkish industrialist also use Turkish machinery and we are very pleased to see that this approach is being encouraged. This cannot be simply called as a kind of nationalism. We are manufacturing machinery for the world. We are the fastest growing country in terms of machinery exports which has increased 900 percent in the last 15 years. We exports machinery worth more than 40 million dollars a day. US firms pay 14-15 dollars per kilogram for those machinery. We sell the same machinery in Turkey with favorable prices. If global industrialist prefer Turkish machinery, Turkish industrialists should also trust machinery produced at home. Machine Manufacturers of Turkey have achieved to take advantage of the global recession in the best way with compared to other sectors in Turkey. We have invested in R&D and quality and utilized this knowledge in production. Turkish machinery are now more competitive and efficient than 5 years ago. Moreover, thanks to our institutionalization efforts and promotional activities abroad, global machinery users have become aware of improvements of Turkish machinery. Today, Turkey is the fastest growing country in terms of machinery exports. We have increased our sales to Germany, the USA and the UK for more than 20%. Our exports to Russia and Romania has grown more than 50%. Turkish machinery manufacturers year-end target has been set as 18 billion dollars which means a 20% increase and we believe that we will achieve this target. Our target for 2023 is to have a 15-20% share for machinery sales from all Turkish exports like all developed countries have. When Turkey gains a significant amount of its revenues from machinery manufacturing and technology, its competitiveness will draw global attention. Turkey is a country that is specialized in machinery manufacturing with a robust technical and engineering knowledge. If our industrialists choose their solution partners among Turkish machinery manufacturers, they will be free from being foreign-dependent. They can develop in-house technologies. We want to see Turkey as a country exporting the technology rather than importing it. MACHINERY MANUFACTURING IS THE ENGINE OF A NATION High technology is vital for development of any country. According to the United Nations, China exports more high-tech products than the USA and Germany in terms of percentage to total exports. China has a 24 percent share while The USA and Germany have 18 percent. Another interesting statistics is about high-tech exports of Taiwan. It constitutes 45% of total exports of that country. This figure is 28 percent for South Korea. As total advanced communication technology exports of Germany, USA and Japan has decreased from 83 billion USD to 63 billion USD in 10-15 years, total advanced technology exports of China, Taiwan and South Korea have increased from 80 billion USD to 620 billion USD in the same period. Western industries have clearly lost this competition. That is the reason for some countries to lean towards protective policies in order to attract investments and create jobs. That is the reason behind so called trade wars. But for Western powers, this war had been lost long time ago. The last castle of the West is manufacturing of high-tech machinery. Germany, USA and Japan have increased their high-tech machinery exports from 19 billion USD to 27 billion USD in the last 15 years, while China, Taiwan and South Korea have seen an increase of 3 billion USD to 7 billion. Western powers will face a harsh competition in this sector also. Those figures are important in terms of the changing balances in the global economy. This change may create great opportunities for Turkey. Adnan Dalgakıran, Turkish Machinery Federation (MAKFED) Chairman of Board: The machinery sector has a great importance for Turkish economy. This sector is the engine of the economy. If a country ignores this sector, it never becomes a developed country. Taiwan and South Korea are the only countries which achieved to be among developed countries in the last 60 years. They achieved this by focusing on machinery, electronics and software. There are no countries that have been prosperous without manufacturing machinery. China’s machinery exports had a value of only 3 billion USD in 1992, but it was 270 billion USD in 2005. Why had they invested in machinery production? Because if a country cannot manufacture its production tools, it should import them and you can only contribute to this production cycle by your workforce. Turkey must have a corner in the machinery market in order to be among the largest advanced countries in the world. This is possible by setting up strategies to further improve the current machinery manufacturing infrastructure. TURKEY IS THE TOP EXPORTER OF FLOUR AND BULGUR Let’s have a look at figures for production and exports of Bakery, Biscuits and Pasta sectors that contribute to national economy by using those machinery. Today, Turkey is a hub of grains. We can clearly see that global grain trade has been occurring in the region where Turkey is located. Today, Turkey is a prominent country in terms of flour, bulgur, biscuit and pasta production. Self sufficiency for wheat is very high according to figures of Turkish Statistical Institute (103.8% for 2016/17 season). But negative climate conditions may cause quality and production issues and imports may be necessary to meet demands. But the main reason of increasing wheat imports is the increase of wheat based products such as flour, pasta, biscuit, semolina and bulgur. Wheat, barley and corn production in Turkey are generally sufficient for meeting domestic demand. But those staples are being imported in order to produce finished products to be sold abroad. Turkish wheat exports was 4.35 million tons in 2015; 4,22 million tons in 2016 and 4,99 million tons in 2017. In recent years, Turkey has been importing wheat particularly from Russia Federation, Ukraine, Lithuania, Mexico and Kazakhstan. In order to keep prices stable Turkish Grain Board exports wheat and utilizes other intervention mechanisms when there is a surplus. The latest large exports for wheat occurred in 2010 with 1,171 million tons. Wheat exports in 2017 were 42,5 thousand tons. As Turkey has achieved a significant success in pasta exports, durum wheat imports has been increasing in recent years. In 2016, Turkey imported 756 thousand tons of durum wheat.. In 2017, durum wheat export dropped to 419 thousand tons. Turkey’s export of pasta, bulgur, biscuits, semolina, and noodle exports play an important role in large imports of durum wheat. Turkey also exported 11 thousand tons of durum wheat in 2017. WHEAT BASED EXPORTS OF TURKEY Turkey has become a significant exporter of wheat based products gradually. Turkey exported 3,49 million tons of flour, 1,05 million tons of pasta, 257 thousand tons of bulgur, 60 thousand tons of semolina, 443 thousand tons of biscuits in 2017. Pasta and semolina were fastest growing export goods among wheat based products. According to the United Nations International Trade Center (ITC) figures, Turkey became the biggest flour and bulgur exporter and second biggest pasta exporter. Semolina and biscuits exports have also been growing. Turkey exported finished products that are based on 7,3 million tons of wheat in 2017. According to Turkish Statistical Institute figures, Turkey produced 1,35 million tons pasta in 2016. Pasta exports hit 1.05 million in 2017. Turkey exported 777 thousand tons of pasta in the first 8 months of 2018. Turkey is the third biggest pasta producer after Italy and the USA and second biggest pasta exporter after Italy. Turkish domestic demand for pasta is about 600 thousand tons. Turkish pasta producers are exporting more than 150 countries. IRAQ IS THE LARGEST EXPORTS MARKET Mahsum Altunkaya, Turkish Grains and Pulses Sector Board Chairman: Turkish region of Southeastern Anatolia exported grains, pulses, oil seeds and their products with a value of 1.543 billion USD in the first 9 months of 2018. This region has a share of 32 percent among total exports of Turkey in this sector. In addition to that, 25 percent of total exports of Southeastern Anatolia is made by our sector. Those figures show the importance of our sector for economy of the region. Southeastern Anatolia region also undertakes an important mission for the Middle Eastern countries by supplying main staples. Main exports food of Southeastern Anatolia in the first 9 months of 2018 is wheat with a value of 356 million dollars. It is followed by pasta with a value of 532 thousand dollars. Products with the third highest export value are biscuits and pastry. Southeastern Anatolia Region is exporting grains and pulses to 160 countries. This regions exports for this sector is mainly focused on Iraq. Nearly half of the export revenue is coming from this country with 780 million dollars. Syria is the second export market with 249 million dollars.