Turkey's largest agricultural organization Agroexpo-18 hosted by Izmir Metropolitan Municipality. The International Agriculture and Livestock Fair has started. Expressing that they started from the word “Wolf, Bird, Ash” and implemented many agricultural projects while shaping Izmir's agricultural vision, Mayor Soyer said, “I hope that these efforts in Izmir will spread to all of Turkey under the guidance of a common mind and increase the competitiveness of our agricultural sector.”
 
Agroexpo -18 organized by Orion Fuarcılık hosted by Izmir Metropolitan Municipality, which continues its efforts to make the fair industry go further in Izmir, the city of fairs. The International Agriculture and Livestock Fair has started. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Tunç Soyer said that the rapidly growing drought, the food crisis engulfing millions, the policies imposed by agriculture and seed monopolies are the biggest threat to humanity. President Tunç Soyer said, "We have now come to the end of the order that even the last penny in our farmer's pocket is mortgaged with the promise of increasing productivity. Because agriculture is not just a technical issue, it is life itself. Our generation is producing its own solutions against the standardized agriculture. The peoples of the world and local governments are coming up with brand new methods against agricultural monopolies fed by the spiral of rural and urban poverty. Turkey's agricultural sector should not turn a blind eye to this rapid transformation either. On the contrary, in order to grow its economic volume, it must adapt and build its competition with the world from this very point. Healthy, delicious, varied and compatible with nature food is a basic human right. We should see very clearly that millions of people on earth, mothers, fathers and young people have taken action to regain this right,”he said.
 “Our first word was 'To the Wolf, to the bird, to the Ash'”
Explaining how they created solutions to problems with the “Another Agriculture is Possible” policy, Mayor Tunç Soyer said, “When creating the agricultural vision of Izmir, our first word was 'wolf, bird, ash'. Because this word is a statement of intent made by our farmer in the agricultural tradition of Anatolia while sprinkling seeds on the soil for centuries. It's a very clear principle. This saying, which describes the fertility mathematics of Anatolia, tells us in its simplest form how we can fight our destructive ambition: to take one for ourselves and to give two to life. In the light of this promise, we said ‘Another Agriculture is Possible’. Why do we call it another agriculture? Because while these lands were one of the few countries that could be self-sufficient in terms of food production, at the point where Ataturk called the ‘master of the nation’, our peasant could not produce. Cities have turned into places where the farmer has abandoned his land and turned into cheap labor. Villages were closed and family farming, which created our agricultural culture, was sacrificed to big companies. In these lands, where sheep, goats and cattle were first domesticated, we have become a country that brings live animals from outside. Unfortunately, even wheat, whose homeland is Anatolia, is now imported from abroad. Due to the wasted water in agriculture, the groundwater began to recede and our ancestral seeds began to disappear. We in Izmir are making an effort to change this grave picture in our country,”he said.
 “We have identified five strategic products”
Stating that there is a much stronger relationship between ecology and the economy than the similarity of sound, Mayor Soyer said, “It is impossible to achieve a permanent Deceleration in the economy without protecting the ecosystem. The depression caused by the climate crisis and pandemic in the global economy is the most important evidence of this. We have created our agricultural policy based on this truth. We have built a set of policies to combat poverty and drought at the same time. We have identified five strategic product classes in Izmir that have a high economic value, consume little water, and have a high export potential. The first pillar of this agricultural mosaic, which consists entirely of native seeds and breeds, is pasture animal husbandry, the second is cereals and legumes, the third is olives and olive oil, the fourth is thirst-resistant fruits such as grapes, figs and almonds, and the fifth is coastal fishing. We provide a purchase and sale guarantee for these products, which are produced in high quantities by small producers of Izmir and have a high economic value. We are building an agricultural policy based on our own resources. We provide rural development by making it possible for our villagers to feed in the place where they were born. We protect our water resources and nature by using the right product in the right place and at the right time. We contribute to the growth of the food industry and employment in Izmir by revealing value-added products. Perhaps most importantly, we provide safe, uninterrupted and economical food to millions of our citizens in our cities against the high cost and mass poverty that are peaking in our country. I hope that these efforts of ours in Izmir will spread all over Turkey and increase the competitiveness of our agricultural sector,”he said.
 “We want to increase cooperation with Turkish companies”
Uganda Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries Rwamirama Bright stated that they attach importance to agriculture and said that they want to increase cooperation with Turkish companies within the scope of the fair.
"It gives strength to our development movement”
Izmir Chamber of Commerce Chairman of the Board Mahmut Özgener,“Agroexpo is a fair that accelerates more and more every year and gives strength to our agricultural development movement,” he said. Jak Eskinazi, the Coordinator President of the Aegean Exporters' Associations, said, “As the Aegean Region, the agricultural warehouse of the world, we have maintained our leadership in 2022. I think we will protect it in 2023 as well,” he said.
“I find the metropolitan's practices very important”
Hakan Product, Vice Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Aegean Region Chamber of Industry, said, “I find the agricultural practices of the Metropolitan Municipality very important.” Fatih Tan, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Orion Fairs, thanked Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Tunç Soyer for his support.
 
Who participated?
Izmir Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Tunç Soyer, Village-Koop Izmir Union President Neptune Soyer, Izmir Ministry of Foreign Affairs Representative and Ambassador Naciye Gökçen Kaya, Uganda Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries Rwamirama Bright, Education and Broadcasting Department Head of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Bulent Kahraman Çolakoğlu, Izmir Chamber of Commerce Chairman Mahmut Özgener, Aegean Exporters' Associations Coordinator President Jak Eskinazi, Aegean Region Chamber of Industry for the opening of Turkey's largest agricultural organization held in Izmir Fair Deputy Chairman of the Board of Directors Hakan Product, Izmir Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Manager Mustafa Özen, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Orion Fairs Fatih Tan, district mayors, representatives of political parties, sector professionals, cooperative and union partners, heads of non-governmental organizations, representatives and citizens attended.
Agroexpo 18. times are arranged
Agroexpo, which hosted a thousand 49 exhibitors and about 358 thousand visitors from 90 countries at the Fair Izmir last year, was organized by the organization of Aegean Exporters' Associations under the auspices of the Ministry of Trade. In the “Bilateral Meetings of the Procurement Committee”, there was a business volume of $ 2 billion. Dec Dec February1-5th, 2023, the representatives of the sector will come together with nearly a thousand buyers from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans and the February5, 2023 and February 1st, 2023, the fair will be attended by representatives of the industry from the Republics of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Balkans and Turkey. 18 with a business volume target of $ 2.5 billion. Agroexpo aims to host about 400 thousand visitors with 80 thousand participants from 100 countries.