Web auction to boost East’s livestock trade

ERZURUM - Anadolu Agency

An online livestock and animal products auction market will be founded. AA photo

A real-time Internet livestock auction in the eastern Turkish province of Erzurum will be founded to increase opportunities for trade in livestock and animal products such as meat, milk, wool and leather.

“We wanted to find a way to make it easier for people to buy and sell cattle and their products such as milk, meat, wool and leather across the country,” says Hilmi Hınıslıoğlu, president of the Erzurum Commodity Exchange Market.

“The livestock sector has an important economic potential for macroeconomic development in Erzurum. By trading online, anyone with Internet access can buy and sell,” he said.

The exchange market, the construction of which will start “as soon as possible,” will cost around $10 million and will be built on 260,000 square meter of land, Hınıslıoğlu said.

“The exchange will offer people the opportunity to look at and instantly buy cattle and animal products from anywhere in the world,” he said.

The highest bidder will buy the animals online and the seller will be able to receive the payment through EFT instantaneously.

“There will be no illegality or smuggling. As is known, many people used to be defrauded during sales at animal markets. Nobody will be able to steal an honest penny of producers and stockbreeders,” Hınıslıoğlu said.

The province of Erzurum, which is 2,000 meters above sea level, has the highest ratio of meadows and pastures in Turkey, making it ideal for livestock breeding.

According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TÜİK), in 2013 there were nearly 669,524 cattle bred in Erzurum. The institute’s data also shows that more than 565,000 were small domestic animals such as calves, lambs and kid goats were bred in the region last year.