A recent survey by municipality-affiliated İstanbul Planning Agency (İPA) reveals how dire Turkey’s food crisis has gotten in her richest city. Anecdotes reveal wide-spread abandonment of animal protein because of high prices, as well portion and meal frequency reductions by households across the country.
According to al Monitor “A global food crisis is well underway and, according to World Food Program chief David Beasley, it will be “beyond anything we’ve seen in our lifetime.” The situation is all the more alarming for countries that have traditionally depended on imports of key staple foods to meet their needs. This goes for the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) where food accounts for 13% of the region’s total imports, compared to 9% in the European Union (EU), 8% in Latin America and 7% in North America”.
With grain prices possibly having troughed in July, Turkey’s despair is likely to get worse in the winter months. Access to food has never been this poor in the 21st Century, not even during the 2001 economic crisis.
Seventy percent of İstanbulites ‘can’t buy food they want’
A significant portion of the metropolis of İstanbul are struggling to meet their basic needs, according to the monthly survey of the municipality-affiliated İstanbul Planning Agency (İPA).
Some 71.5 percent of the respondents to the survey said that economic problems, housing and rental prices and “holidays they can’t afford anymore” were primary topics of discussion at home in July.
Also, 70.1 percent of respondents said they were not able to buy the food they wanted due to financial difficulties, with 61.7 percent claiming they were concerned about having access to sufficient nutrition. Among the lower-income respondents, this rate was over 80 percent.
Over 62 percent of respondents and 86.3 percent of the respondents with lower income said they had to reduce portions because they could not afford adequate food.
The most important issues on the city’s agenda were economic problems and housing and rental prices, according to the survey.
Worse, little hope for the future
Fifty-three percent of İstanbulites think the economy will worsen in the coming months, whereas 28.3 percent said conditions won’t change.
Over 43.6 percent said they were not able to make ends meet, and 25.1 percent said they had to borrow money because they could not cover their expenses.
The share of those who could not pay the minimum credit card debt was 38.3 percent. Eight percent said they could not make a payment at all whereas 45.3 percent said they paid the entire credit card debt.
Al Monitor: Shortages of essential food items could grow, increases in hunger and malnutrition rates beckons
A recent article in Al Monitor focuses on Middle East, where food accounts for 13% of the region’s total imports, compared to 9% in the European Union (EU), 8% in Latin America and 7% in North America. In Turkey the share of food and beverages in the official CPI basket is 20%, highlighting the severity of the situation.
With food export bans now in place in many countries, rising shipping costs and a widening supply-demand gap, the crisis, if not adequately and urgently addressed, could see shortages of essential food items grow to levels that lead to a notable increase in hunger and malnutrition rates across the world.
Dire consequences
This will certainly be the case for Turkey, which is witnessing not only a monster Covid-19 wave, but the severest draught of July in decades, with precipitation down by 55% vs long-term averages.
Turkish Economy Won’t Survive The Winter
The government denies there is a crisis, with Erdogan’s only response being to order state-affiliated agricultural co-ops to reduce meat prices. These provide only a tiny share of the national demand. To compound the problem, Turkey is too proud to ask for international agencies’ food donation programs.
The short-term consequence of the food crisis is a certain backlash against Erdogan and his AKP-MHP coalition, with rising public unrest in winter months. In the medium term, malnutrition coupled with almost three years of inadequate schooling is robbing millions of pre-teens of future job opportunities and good wages.
BiaNet, Al Monitor, PATurkey Staff
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