Turkish food & drink sector news roundup
Turkish ice cream exports rise
Who doesn’t love a sweet treat? The Turks certainly do – and it seems they’re producing more ice cream than ever before. Certainly enough to turn a domestic surplus into an export product.
In the first half of 2018, 38 countries in 4 continents, from Taiwan, the US and South Africa, collectively imported 10,000 tons of Turkish ice cream.
According to data from the Turkey Statistical Institute (TUIK) and the International Trade Centre (ITC), this generated $24.2m for Turkish producers.
For context, Turkey imported around $1.3m worth of this frozen treat in the review period.
Turkish fast food franchise requests rise 40% in 2017
Foreign brands are losing their hold on the Turkish fast food industry.
According to fast food executive Mustafa Namli, Turk’s convenience dining habits are shifting back in favour of home-grown chains.
“When we look at franchise requests today, we can see demand is shifting towards Turkish brands,” Mr Namil told Turkish news outlet Yasamicin Gida. “In April 2018, compared with last year, we can see that demand for domestic chains has grown 40%. We anticipate that this demand will increase exponentially across the year and reach a 65% limit in April 2019.”
Turkish Red Crescent trains cooks to deal with emergencies
The Turkish Red Crescent aid organisation, Turkey’s Red Cross analogue, has been training cooks and catering staff in Istanbul to cope with potential disasters.
14 cooks from the Directorate General of Logistics of Kızılay and the Northern Marmara, Western Black Sea, Mediterranean, Northeast Anatolia and Eastern Anatolia Region Disaster Management Centres participated in the training.
It is expected that a total of 70 cooks across the country will benefit from this education and pass their knowledge on in their local provinces.
During the training sessions, participants learned new meat cutting techniques, mass baking skills, and how legumes should be prepared for maximum nutrition. The goal is to provide nutritious, healthy meals that can be prepared quickly in disaster areas.
Turkish Red Crescent is the main nutritional partner of the Turkey Disaster Response Plan – a nationwide endeavour to improve emergency relief.