Wholesale Market Law draft in Parliament: Producer organizations and experts find the regulation inadequate

The draft foreseeing amendments to the 2012 Wholesale Market Law regulating the vegetable and fruit trade has been brought to the parliamentary agenda. Presented as a solution to excessive increases in food prices, the regulation was found inadequate by producer organizations and experts because it fails to protect small producers and does not restrict the market power of large buyers.

The new Wholesale Market Law draft brought to the parliamentary agenda foresees increasing the quota of spaces allocated to producer organizations in neighborhood markets and wholesale markets from 20 percent to 30 percent with ministerial authority. Within the scope of the draft, it is also planned to abolish income tax withholding on product prices marketed through producer organizations and to allocate free Treasury land to producer organizations wishing to establish wholesale markets. Requiring traders outside the wholesale market to obtain a mandatory authorization certificate from the Ministry of Trade, introducing a collateral system, and banning purchases and sales between commission agents and traders within the same wholesale market are also among the provisions. While the authority to penalize market-distorting actions is transferred from municipalities to the Ministry of Trade, those penalized for hoarding are projected to be barred from supports for three years, retailers will be obliged to source 20 percent of their goods from producer organizations, and rent and transportation support will be provided for storage.

While Yüksel Tavşan, President of the Federation of Wholesale Market Traders, stated that the regulation will protect farmers from malicious buyers and meet the need for transparency, he argued that planning regarding the supply-demand balance for selected products is necessary for healthy operation. Adnan Çobanoğlu, Organization Secretary of Çiftçi-Sen, stated that there is no structure in the draft favoring small producers, and that first of all, the antidemocratic cooperativism law should be changed and customs duty-free product imports during harvest periods should be abandoned. Agricultural economy expert Prof. Tayfun Özkaya emphasized that continuous incentives are essential for producer organization against large buyers, while Murat Kapıkıran, President of the TMMOB Chamber of Agricultural Engineers, stated that the draft was not prepared with participation and that cooperatives should be run by the public administration with public interest in mind.