Gülfem EREN, HUBUDER: “The 3rd Hubuder Conference about “Grain in Turkey and the World towards 2016/17 Harvest” will be held in Ankara Crown Plaza Hotel on 11-12 May.  While foreign speakers will deliver speeches about their expectations on the harvest in Black Sea, Europe, North America and, in general, the world; speakers from Turkey will share their remarks on Turkish flour industry, the projections on the developments expected in Turkey and the World and the outlook of the grain production in Turkey by each region.” Gülfem EREN, President of Grain Suppliers Association (HUBUDER) which was established for the purpose of gathering grain suppliers under one roof and taking the lead in practices that will serve to the benefit of grain supply sector and our country, is the guest of our magazine this month. EREN stated that their members are local grain merchants, companies importing raw materials, representatives of foreign companies operating in Turkey and producers in flour, animal feed, pasta industry and she states that they are planning to accelerate liberalizing the grain market regulations that are subject to excessive control of the state and spreading the product specific commodity markets and licensed warehouse operations. We talked about the roadmap of HUBUDER, the purpose and targets of the series of conferences they organize and the general outlook of grain production in Turkey with Gülfem EREN who gives information about the “Grain in Turkey and the World towards 2016/17 Harvest” which will be held in Ankara on 11-12 May. Ms. Eren, first of all, can you please give information about your association? How many members do you have and as an association, what are you activities in the sector? Our association was founded officially on 2013 for the purpose of representing grain supplier companies that are important actors of the agriculture sector but did not operate under the roof of an organization. Our association has 72 members. Hubuder is a very young association but displays a good progress. Can you please tell about the activities you performed since the day you were established? What improvements did you achieve since 2013? Keeping its members informed about rapidly-changing markets is one of the activities attached importance by our association. Our members are instantly informed about the legislative changes on customs and import through TMO bulletins on the grain market. In addition, monthly reports on developments in the international markets are created and distributed by our association. Some of the activities of our association are GAFTA workshop organized in Çırağan Hotel in collaboration with CLYDE&CO in order to give information to our members on the international trade rules, conference on Grains in Turkey and the world before the Harvest that is organized annually on May with the participation of the executives from TMO and foreign speakers as well as support provided for the International Grain Conference organized in Istanbul annually on December for which our members receive a discount. You will hold a conference on May. I believe, this will be the third one. Can you please give information on this conference? Where and when is it held, who attends? This is the 3rd Hubuder Conference about “Grain in Turkey and the World towards 2016/17 Harvest” and it will be held in Ankara Crown Plaza Hotel on 11-12 May. We expect approximately 250 persons to attend the conference where foreign speakers will deliver speeches about their expectations on the harvest in Black Sea, Europe, North America and, in general, the World; speakers from Turkey will share their remarks on Turkish flour industry, the projections on the developments expected in Turkey and the World and the outlook of the grain production in Turkey by each region. Our association’s goal is to set its direction in parallel with the ideas and demands of our members and meet the expectations of our members to the extent possible. Therefore, we will hold an advisory council meeting during the conference. We are planning to hold these meetings semi-annually and create a function within the association for exchanging information with the members. What would you like to say about the general objective and target of this series of conferences? Who should attend these conferences and what will be the contribution of these conferences for the attendants? Objective of these conferences is to provide information to the attendants on expectations for the new harvest, potential changes in the supply-demand balance and prices particularly in the Black Sea Region, Europe Union and North Africa. In addition, we attach particular importance to the projections on foreign currency and financial markets as the markets are affected by fluctuations in both Turkey and the World. The presentation of TMO and speeches to be delivered in the afternoon focus on the production forecasts in Turkey. Thus attendants are provided with the opportunity to have a complementary view on the new harvest season. As our association focuses on all sectors using grains such as flour, animal feed, egg, poultry meat, biscuit and pasta sectors, it will be beneficial for all companies including the merchants, sector representatives and companies offering surveillance, port and customs services so they can make plans for the next season. Can you please give information on the operational aspects of the grain trade in Turkey, activities and roles of the suppliers in the sector? What is the share of your members or suppliers from the private sector in overall grain trade of Turkey? Our members include local grain merchants, raw material importers, representatives of foreign companies operating in Turkey and enterprises offering services for these sectors as well as the leading producer companies from the flour, animal feed and pasta industry due to the aforementioned reasons. We can say that almost all important companies steering the grain trade are represented by our association. Yet, Hubuder is the only independent non-governmental organization operating in the field of grain trade. What is the position of Turkey in grain production? How much of the products circulated in the grain supply chain of Turkey are produced locally? Do you believe grains produced in Turkey meet the requirements and expectations? This is, of course, dependent on the climate conditions but Turkey’s grain production does not meet the internal demand on normal years. However, Turkey’s flour, pasta, poultry and egg exports have an important share in our foreign trade. Unless unexpected product problems arise, grain imports and exports in Turkey are equal. In my opinion, we should focus on the most advantageous products in terms of climate and soil structure and analyse it extensively in consideration of the requirement for oily seeds while determining the sufficiency of our production. Can you please give information on projections for the production in the new season? What are the production expectations for the new season, what do you think about the current season in grain trade? Rainfall on March, April and even May is so important for Turkey, it can change the faith of the harvest. At present, arid climate prevails in the Central Anatolia region and it will have negative impact particularly on barley production. However, as I have stated before, it is early yet to make a realistic forecast. Therefore, we organize our conference on May when we have a clear understanding on expectations for the production. Although there are certain speculations in the world that there will be drought due to warm winter, we will need to see the climate conditions that will prevail from this point on. As an association, do you have an on-going project or a project planned for the upcoming years? Our association is planning to accelerate its operations towards liberalizing the grain market regulations that are subject to excessive control of the state and spreading the product specific commodity markets and licensed warehouse operations in close collaboration with TMO and the relevant official authorities.