Turkey to take measures on food supply quality, prices

By Muhammed Ali Gurtas

ANKARA (AA) - A special committee will take measures to control the quality of Turkey’s food supply chain and its prices, Turkey's Central Bank announced Tuesday.

The bank's statement followed a Food and Agricultural Product Markets Monitoring and Evaluation Committee meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek.

According to the committee, working groups have been established to improve incentives, standardization, and competition with the aim of enhancing the effectiveness of the food supply chain.

The bank said signals from a new early warning system were assessed to take product-based measures expected to be beneficial in the short term.

The system, established under the coordination of the Central Bank and the Food, Agriculture and Livestock Ministry, is meant to support stable supply and price formation for food products.

Early this month, the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) announced that consumer prices in Turkey rose 9.22 percent year-on-year in January from 8.53 percent in December.

According to the TurkStat, the highest monthly increase was in food and beverages, rising 6.37 percent.