Israeli agri firms visit Turkey

İZMİR - Anatolia News Agency

The Aegean Exports Union (EİB) collaborated with the Israel-Turkish Business Council and the Israel Producers Union, to hold a seminar yesterday in the western province of İzmir on “Modern Agricultural Practices in Israel.” The seminar comes at a time of renewed political tension between Turkey and Israel, after Turkey recently vetoed Israel’s participation in next month’s NATO summit.

Turkish agriculture and food firms showed a great interest in the seminar, which was aimed at increasing agricultural activities in Turkey. Representatives of three Israeli agriculture firms shared with Turkish attendees their knowledge and experience on high technology applications in agriculture, cooperation between agricultural and industrial sectors, and how to modernize traditional sectors.

“It is indispensable to follow new technologies to meet our targets within 11 years. Developing such transnational cooperation is inevitable for our country in this respect,” said Mustafa Türkmenoğlu, the head of EİB, referring to the 2023 economic targets, which mark the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Republic of Turkey.

First Israeli-Turkish seminar

Noting that this was a first Israeli-Turkish seminar, Moshe Kamhi, the consul general of Israel in Istanbul, said the bilateral trade volume had surpassed $4 billion, increasing 30 percent annually.
“Continuation of possible cooperation regarding agricultural technologies, which the Aegean region needs, will help expand agricultural activities,” he said.

The seminar is of great importance regarding bilateral relations of the two countries, said Ekrem Güvendiren, the president of the Turkey-Israel Business Council, adding that political tension had hampered trade between the two countries in recent years. “This is an important meeting, as it is the first to be approved by our Foreign Ministry,” he said.

Mehadrin Group President Yonatan Bassi, Hazera Genetics CEO Rami Dar, and Ofer Oveed, an official of Netafim, made presentations on modern agricultural methods at the seminar.