90% of the world eats Turkish flour: Industry official

By Gokhan Ergocun

ISTANBUL (AA) - Turkey exports flour to 164 countries around the globe, meaning that 90% of the world’s population consumes Turkish flour, a top flour industry official told Anadolu Agency Tuesday.

Turkey earns over $1 billion from flour exports annually, said Eren Gunhan Ulusoy, director of the International Association of Operative Millers (IAOM) Eurasia, as well as head of the Turkish Flour Industrialists' Federation.

The power in raw material production will make flour industrialists stronger in the foreign market as well, he said.

For the last seven years Turkey has been the biggest flour exporter in the world, he added.

"We need to produce more of our own wheat and boost the share of our domestic wheat in our total consumption,” he said.

Last year the country's wheat production was 19.5 million tons, and this year it is expected to reach 20 million tons, he said.