Third HUBUDER Conference gathered together grain suppliers and buyers in Ankara on May 12, 2016 to discuss “Turkey towards 2016/17 Harvest and Grain in the World”.
The third annual conference of Turkish Grain Suppliers’ Association (HUBUDER) was held in Ankara on May 12, 2016. The conference themed “Turkey towards 2016/17 Harvest and Grain in the World” gathered together grain suppliers and buyers, analysts, representatives from public organizations and institutions, and enabled discussing the new season.
The opening speeches of the conference were made by Gülfen Eren – Chairman of HUBUDER, E. Günhan Ulusoy – President of Turkish Flour Industrialists’ Federation (TUSAF) and Mustafa Erdoğan – Deputy General Manager of Turkish Grain Board (TMO).
A SEASON OF INCREASING RISK AND UNCERTAINTIES
HUBUDER Chairman Eren reminded the global crisis and political instabilities during his speech. "We had a season that commodity prices had a horizontal or downward trend, market risks and uncertainties increased more than any other crisis that we had faced until today." said Eren. “And it is not certain when this turmoil will end. Especially, while the concerns about the risk related to the receivables decreased the enthusiasm for doing business by shrinking the trade on one hand, the increasing question marks regarding the political instability in Turkey created a sense of tiredness and hopelessness in business people.
Of course, as businessmen who survived a lot of economical crises, we should be able to look at the future with hope. In fact, an important part of the current crisis results from the conditions of the global economy. The world that relaxed with the monetary expansion entered into a new age with the last crisis. And how much longer this crisis will continue and how deeper it will get are still unknown.”
CRISES MAY BE OPPORTUNITIES FOR THE RIGHT STRATEGIES
In the rest of the speech, he stated that the dream of constant growth and profitability is the main commercial motivation of virtually all companies, but it is not very realistic. Eren added that the crises are good opportunities to review perspectives for the companies. "Thus we need to determine our strategies with more reasonable goals and embrace approaches that will make our companies lasting.” said Eren.
Eren reminded that the last season broke the important routines in terms of grain prices: “The grain prices that are more or less constant in the last 6-7 years if we do not count some extreme movements caused by climate conditions, and especially the prices for bread wheat decreased down to levels that we did not expect in the 2015/16 harvest season. It can be seen that the commodity prices in the state of monetary expansion left its place to new prices that will stabilize at lower levels in the world. I think we had experienced the lowest levels of the world markets last season. And in the light of the information we got, it will be easier for us to understand the global grain prices and money markets, and do business in the following season.”
SUSTAINABLE PRICES
TUSAF President Günhan Ulusoy, who took over the stage after Eren, attracted attention to the excess supply and increase in the inventories. “The downward trend of the prices is important and good for the public fighting with hunger.” said Ulusoy. “However, the agriculture has a sustainability limit, too. When the grain prices get lower than the cost, then we face the problem of sustainability. Thus we, as industrialist and businessmen, want supply and demand to always meet at a sustainable point.
TMO Deputy General Manager Mustafa Erdoğan gave hints about the current state in Turkey and the policies of TMO for the following season.
In the rest of the conference that welcomed almost 200 participants, the presentations of Turkish and foreign participants discussed both the current regional state of Turkey before the 2016 harvest and the last state of and the forecasts for the international markets.