I wanted to review the fisheries sector, in which we operate, and especially the sea bream-sea bass market in this last month when we get ready to bid farewell to the year 2014. When we look back, we can say that 2014 has been a positive year for our fish in many ways. Especially thanks to the price levels that were much higher than last year, the firms that invested in our sector have been happy. However a significant part of the factors that created this positive outlook resulted from factors experienced outside of the sector.
Firstly, we saw that especially those firms that export were able to sell their products abroad with good prices because of the rise in the exchange rate when entering 2014. Thanks to this increase, a few firms that had not exported before also decided to become exporters and they did. The emergence of a supply problem in the market due to the troubles experienced by producers in Greece was added to this and the prices increased even more. In the following months, the purchase of sea bream from Greece and the purchase of salmon from Norway were stopped because of the problems that Russia had with the EU and USA, so the atmosphere that was in favor of Turkey became even more favorable.
While entering 2015, all producers are trying to understand the production figures of Turkey and Greece because in our sector we still have a price system based on supply. The efforts that are geared towards increasing the demand and expanding the pie are unfortunately very limited and insufficient. However the protein deficit in the world is getting bigger every day and the demand for sea products is increasing every year. Sea bream and sea bass are among the few valuable fish which are produced through acquaculture in this world of sea products.
Let us look at the source of food and protein food that is produced in the entire world:
As it is seen in a striking fashion, although 70% of the earth’s surface is covered with seas, rivers and lakes, still only 2% of the food consumed by humans comes from the seas, rivers and lakes. Today the world population is increasing from 7 billion people to towards 9 billion people rapidly and the food deficit and especially protein deficit continues to be a significant problem. All the world agrees that much more of the protein needs can be met with fish on this planet, of which 70% is covered with water.
In this case, what is the role that we should play? Both in our country and in the countries we export to, and in the countries to which export is not made yet, there are so many people who have not seen a sea bream aor sea bass! It is necessary to promote our fish starting with our country and we need to make sure that we turn it into a place where every one eats fish at least once a year. In those countries to which we export, we need to raise the market position and perception of our product and we need to work so that the value of our product is understood by everybody. In the US market, where our exports have increased rapidly in 2014, most of the population is unaware of sea bream and sea bass. Whenever our products start to be consumed at home in a country, we reach significant export figures. The best example for this is markets such as Russia, Dubai and Spain. The purpose should be to enter the kitchens of the consumers, rather than our fish being products that are only consumed in restaurants. When we increase the number of countries where we succeed in doing that, it will not be necessary to chase the total production figures as much as today.
I hope that 2015 will be a good year for all the fishery community!!!
