Turkey Restricts Exports of Food Commodities as a Result of the Middle East Conflict

JAKARTA - The Turkish government has decided to temporarily restrict the export of a number of food commodities to combat rising prices due to speculation, amid Middle East tensions exacerbated by the war between Iran, the United States, and Israel.

"The Ministry of Trade and the Ministry of Agriculture have restricted the export of chicken meat, eggs, chickpeas, and nuts," the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry told RIA Novosti, as reported by ANTARA, Thursday, March 19.

Meanwhile, export permits for "beef and goat meat, sunflower oil, oilseeds, green lentil and red lentil" will not be issued at this time.

The steps announced by the Turkish ministry are intended to keep inflation under control, support local producers, and maintain the balance of prices in the domestic market.

According to the Turkish statistical institute, TUIK, the annual inflation rate in the country was 31.53 percent by the end of February.

The Turkish government is taking steps to encourage imports through the reduction of import tariffs. One of them, a zero tariff is imposed on imports of around one million tons of sunflower oil until the end of May 2026.

Then, given the poor harvest, the import tariff for green lentil was discounted to 10 percent - previously 19.3 percent - until the end of April. The import tariff for lemons was also reduced from 54 percent to 10 percent until the end of July.

The import tariff for oat cereals, which was initially 130 percent, was reduced to 30 percent until the end of April, provided that the commodity was for the production of muesli, biscuits, and oat milk.

According to the newspaper Ekonomim, the increase in the price of raw materials and disruptions in the production and maritime shipping chains due to tensions in the Middle East have caused production to stop at a number of Turkish factories, forcing some of them to dismiss their workers early.

Companies with such a fate include many companies that require plastic, given that the price of polymer raw materials has risen by around 60-80 percent, while logistics costs have jumped by 70 percent.