At WOFEX, the biggest International Food Expo of the Phillippines, Turkish Flour Yeast and Ingredients Promotion Group (UTG) promoted Turkish flavors and gourmet creations to gastronomers and sectoral represententatives between 31 July-3 August 2013. Turkish Flour Yeast and Ingredients Promotion Group was established in April 2012 with the priority goal of building a brand for the Turkish products in the international markets.

Mr. Turgay Ünlü, Chairman of UTG, said: “Our members are recognized producers and suppliers of wheat flour and other related products. At this expo; we aim to promote our sector in the best manner at our Promotion Group stand to the Philippine manufacturers of their derivative products such as bread, special pastry, cookies and noodles.”

During the four days of the Expo, the representatives of the Group promoted Turkish wheat flour to the visitors with the aim of increasing our exports at the most important food expo of the Philippines where flour consumption is growing rapidly.

The expo visitors had the opportunity of tasting delicious Turkish bakery products at UTG stand, and learned how to make “lokma” (yeast fritters in thick syrup) by watching the demo of Culinary Chief İlhami Kılıç at the main stage on the opening day of the expo. Furthermore, promotional products such as kitchen aprons, briefcases and “Practical Turkish Bakery Recipes” books carrying UTG logo were distributed at the Group’s Stand. Particulary the visitors watching the “lokma” demo showed a big interest in the Practical Bakery Products Recipes Book.

Mr. Ünlü said: “We are happy to participate in this international food expo in order to raise awareness and to build a brand for making Turkey the most preferred wheat flour supplier in the world. We would like to promote the Turkish wheat flour which has both superior quality and suitable price for the Philippine bakers, food producers and buyers.”

Turkey is the world’s biggest wheat flour exporter, exporting suitably-priced quality products to more than one hundred countries worldwide.

According to the latest data of the United Nations – International Trade Center, Turkey became the world’s biggest wheat flour supplier in the year 2012 with her 17% market share and exports amounting to $ 841 million.

The Philippines is an important trade partner for Turkey, and Turkish flour plays an important role in production of suitably-priced bread and noodle consumed by the people.

UTG hosted a classy dinner on the last evening of the expo at Makati Shangri-La Hotel for the businessmen and leading journalists of the Philippines, answering the dumping allegations with a presentation opened by Ms. Hatice Pınar Işık, Turkey’s Ambassador in the Philippines. The data presented by the Promotion Group and by the local Association of Bakers had wide press coverage.

Turkish flour exporters claim their rights in Philippines

Turkish Flour Yeast and Ingredients Promotion Group (UTG) organized negotiations with Philippine businessmen, associations, state authorities and the press, making explanations about the anti-dumping case in Manila, the Capital of the Philippines, on the occasion of the International Food Expo WOFEX organized in the past weeks.

In the year 2010, a smear campaign had been launched in the Philippines against the suitably-priced import Turkish flour, and this campaign had been repulsed with the intensive efforts of our Economy Ministry and Turkish flour exporters. This time, the Philippine Association of Flour Millers Inc. (PAFMIL) in which 9 big mills are members applied to the Philippine Ministry of Agriculture in May this year, requesting that 20 percent dumping duty be imposed on Turkish flour, with the allegation that Turkish flour exporters dump their flour.

Mr. Turgay Ünlü, Chairman of Turkish Flour Yeast and Ingredients Promotion Group consisting of Turkish flour exporters and authorized officials of the delegation asserted at the conferences that no dumping was in question as alleged by PAFMIL, explaining with data the reasons why Turkish flour carries a suitable price. Unlike the Philippine millers buying wheat from the USA at generally more expensive prices, Turkish millers enjoy easy access to the wheat grown in Russia, Kazakhstan and Ukraine, logistic advantages, economies of scale and very-suitably-priced transportation to the Southeast Asia, and these and other similar reasons make it easier for Turkish Millers to compete. Moreover, it is possible, in Turkey, to produce flour with very different quality and price range depending on the area of use. Mr. Turgay Ünlü said that the price comparisons published in the press recently was like comparing apples with pears, noting that the quality, and consequently, the prices of the bread flour or special patisserie flour whose price they consider high in Turkey, and of the flour exported mostly to the markets in the Southeast Asia, for example, the flour used for making noodles or biscuits, would be very different from each other.