Last week, Mehmet Simsek, Finance Minister of Turkey told that his country’s GDP would grow 12 percent in the first quarter of 2010. He had claimed that the economy was recovering quickly from the backlash of the global meltdown in view of country’s several internal crisis management programs.

The 2nd TWTB meet, which is expected to become a venue for 7bn of trade deals, is held between 14th and 20th June. According to sources, the meet has been able to attract nearly 2,200 businessmen from 135 countries and 1,200 Turkish traders as well. About 1,600 translators are interpreting the forums into 38 languages, and the participants would form delegations to visit 62 provinces of Turkey.

The primary objective of the meet would be to include and optimize small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of Turkey to tide over the challenges from the monopolistic-oriented economies. Moreover, Turkey has no intention to endlessly wait for the EU membership to shape its economy to usher in growth particularly at a time when Europe is facing a volatile economic climate.

Through the TUSKON, a confederation with a strong base in Turkey and abroad, the country will be assisting entrepreneurs to overcome the language barrier by providing language courses, and in some cases even translations. The Turkish business confederation along with its affiliations across the world would be working together by simplifying and expediting business processes for country’s SMEs to make the export engine move forward rapidly.

The TUSKON has sister organizations in 135 countries across the world, and these institutions are set up by the Turkish entrepreneurs and volunteers to integrate its members to the international business environment. The Indo-Turkish Business Association, Thai-Turkish Business Association, South Africa Turkish Business Association and the Turkish and Cameroon Business Association are some of the business organizations affiliated to the parent confederation.

Turkey as an emerging export-oriented economy is paying vital importance for the TWTB meet as its trading history indicates those Turkish international business entities monetized significantly better than the domestic ones. A number of government agencies and companies including the Foreign Ministry, the Turkish Exporters Assembly (TIM), Turkish Airlines (THY) and Bank Asya are joining force with the TUSKON to make the meet successful.

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Agriculture Minister of India Sharad Pawar is reported to have informed his Russian counterpart Yelena Skrynnik that his country had the capability to meet those demands as and when they emerged. While both ministers met at the sidelines of the BRIC Agriculture Ministerial Meet, Skrynnik told that though abundant stocks of poultry products were available at the moment, we would turn to India whenever a requirement sprang up.

A sudden demand for poultry in Russia has resulted due to the ban imposed on the US and Brazilian poultry as imports from these countries did not meet Russian poultry standards. According to sources, Russian sanitary standards are quite stringent than internationally accepted ones. The Russian poultry imports from the US at some point of time had even risen up to 80 percent in the past but the new sanitary requirements enforced since Jan 1 have completely stopped all imports from the US.

It should be recalled that India too faced several import bans including the existing one from Russia on its meat and poultry products. Nevertheless, a Russian expert group is expected to visit India shortly to review this long-standing export ban.

Pawar said India was exporting bovine meat and poultry products to 60 countries, including Europe, and there was “enormous potential” for exports to Russia as well. Likewise, Skrynnik apprised that Russia last year had imported 600,000 tonnes of poultry and one million tonnes of meat.

However, it is not known that the good news to the poultry and meat industry of India would turn sour to domestic consumers like that of Turkey as it has been feared in Turkey that the export approval for 500,000 tonnes of white meat to Russia could jack up domestic poultry prices significantly. Besides, the Turkish consumers are worried that the new orders from Russia would even cause severe poultry shortage in the country even though Turkish Agriculture Minister, Mehdi Eker argues that production for exports and domestic needs are met separately.

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During the Soviet era, Russia was a gross grain importer and over the last few years the country has grown as the largest grain exporter. Through the new food policy Russia seemed to have set an achievable target as grain exports to other countries are expected to reach 38mn tons by 2015.

Russia during the World Grain Forum in June, 2009 had initiated a food security tie up with the largest wheat consuming states such as India, China and Turkey to build wheat reserve stocks as well as to cushion future price slides, which has been faced by Russian farmers today. Despite the second-best year for exports and increasing demand from livestock farmers, grain prices still remain low on account of high domestic grain inventory.

Viktor Zubkov, the first Deputy Prime Minister of Russia during the Forum had urged foreign investors to develop the 20mn hectares of unused arable land in Russia. The country’s wheat production has crossed 65mn tons, and has set eyes at producing 100mn tons this year despite sinking wheat prices.

In a last week’s report by RIA Novosti, it stated meat production in Russia was also witnessing significant growth over the past few years. Agriculture Minister Elena Skrynnik while she met Medvedev informed domestic meat production grew 14 percent to 3.3mn tons last year, reducing imports by 20 percent.

Similarly, though Russia is short of poultry production, the recent ban on the US poultry is intended to stimulate domestic poultry production. Russia banned imports of the US chlorine-treated poultry as of 1 January on non-compliance to country’s safety standards, a decision likely to hike domestic poultry prices.

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