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What is the seed trend in the it has built more than 1,400 decares
world right now and how do of turnkey modern greenhouses.
you see the future? After AYS Proje started to build
World seed trade volume is greenhouses for us, we stopped
around 60 billion USD. Turkey’s importing greenhouses from abroad.
seed trade volume (including AYS Proje has now started to build
domestic production and imports) all our greenhouses. With a high-
is around USD 1.5 billion. tech local greenhouse company like
Turkey’s share of the world seed AYS Proje, Turkey no longer needs
market is around 2%. When we to import greenhouses from abroad.
look at the figures, the monetary Now, Turkey has caught up with the
size of the world seed market best level of greenhouse technologies
is not very big compared to the in foreign countries in terms of
monetary size of other sectors. quality and technology.
In some cases, the turnover of a
global oil or chemical company What are the factors that make
alone is larger than the world AYS Proje stand out for you?
seed turnover. But the difference High greenhouse technology,
is that seed is a very strategic High capacity production
sector that directly controls the infrastructure
food of 8 billion people at first Financing power
hand, has a very high added value, Ease of payment
and contains high technology Ability to do business in globally
and know-how. The number of competitive markets outside Turkey
actors operating in the seed sector Promise and commitment
is very small. The number of Assembly quality
countries with a strong seed R&D
infrastructure in the world does What do you expect from
not exceed ten countries. More the greenhouse sector for the
than 90% of countries do not productivity of your seeds?
have this seed R&D and know- We want it to invest in new
how infrastructure. In short, the technologies that reduce labor
countries that are strong in seed and increase energy efficiency.
production today have become the One of these is the use of robots
countries that control agriculture, in the greenhouse, and the other
food and food industry in the world and have a say in the is the development of state-of-the-art greenhouse systems
world governance order. that generate their own electricity and water (from the
Mehmet YUKSEL How do you think the partnership between greenhouse atmosphere) using solar plastics and panels using the idle
and very large greenhouse roof, which will put AYS Proje
R&D and seed R&D is?
Yuksel Tohum The greenhouse sector is the market with the highest added three steps ahead of its global competitors in the future •
Chairman of the Board value in the target markets where seeds are sold. At the same
time, controlled greenhouse investment is very important for
How do you see the development of the seed sector in recent years? Seed is the most important instrument that strong R&D and quality seed production. With these aspects,
How has the pandemic affected this process? controls the food of people all over the world the greenhouse sector is directly related to the high added
Until the 1990s, our seed sector was almost completely dependent on first-hand and most easily. Agriculture is the value of the vegetable seed sector. Seed R&D, quality seed
foreign countries in terms of high quality seed varieties with high added sector that suffers the least damage, stands out production and the development of greenhouse technologies
value. In the last 20-25 years, our seed sector has become competitive the most and becomes the most strategic in are interconnected and directly proportional to each other
with the world and self-sufficient in terms of R&D, situations such as war, economic global crisis and due to the high value-added market for seed companies.
production infrastructure and production quality in many species, pandemic. In the pandemic, the whole world saw
especially in 90% of vegetable species. In field crops, except for sugar beet how important agriculture is for food security. When was the first time you met AYS Proje? And how have
and soybean seeds, there are also very good developments in R&D and The basic beginning of agricultural production you progressed together since then?
production, although not as much as in vegetable species. I believe that is seed. Although other sectors around the world Our acquaintance with the Aytekin family, owners of AYS
with this development momentum, we will soon be competitive with the stopped or slowed down during the pandemic, Proje, goes back more than 25 years. We built our first modern
world and self-sufficient in most of the field crops. These developments the continuity of seed, agriculture and food greenhouses by importing from different countries. AYS
in Turkish seed production in recent years have brought Turkey into the production continued despite everything during Proje started building greenhouses for us 20 years ago. Since
league of seed producing countries. the pandemic. the day it first started to build greenhouses for Yüksel Tohum,
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