Over 700,000 cattle imported by Turkey in 2023
Over 700,000 cattle were imported by Turkey in the first 11 months of 2023, according to figures from the Turkish State Institute of statistics.
The news comes as the country's Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry has recently published import instructions and specifications for the importation of 600,000 head of male cattle for fattening in 2024.
The Turkish Meat and Milk Institution (ESK) will oversee the cattle imports while the sales price of the fattening cattle to be imported "will be determined by the Meat and Milk Institution", according to an official document from the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.
The table below shows the number of cattle imported by Turkey (from each country) in the first 11 months of 2021, 2022 and 2023:
| Country cattle were imported from | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brazil | 27,945 | - | 343,174 |
| Uruguay | 114,294 | 18,061 | 161,008 |
| Czech Republic | 28,999 | 15,029 | 45,695 |
| Hungary | 23,440 | 11,914 | 36,418 |
| Germany | 8,998 | 4,857 | 24,803 |
| Romania | 3,299 | 1,218 | 19,692 |
| Denmark | 2,244 | 2,418 | 17,994 |
| Ireland | 7,042 | - | 10,034 |
| United States | 4,279 | 1,727 | 9,578 |
| Slovakia | 5,141 | 3,534 | 9,036 |
| Austria | 2,192 | 3,035 | 8,225 |
| Bulgaria | 1,133 | 640 | 7,762 |
| Latvia | 2,564 | 2,147 | 6,954 |
| Chile | - | - | 5,106 |
| Netherlands | 225 | 101 | 3,701 |
| Estonia | 1,604 | 464 | 2,245 |
| Italy | 98 | 1,414 | 1,821 |
| Poland | - | - | 1,776 |
| Lithuania | 43 | 116 | 233 |
| France | 7,212 | 736 | 93 |
| Syria | - | - | 55 |
| Spain | 4,414 | - | - |
| Belgium | - | 59 | - |
| Australia | - | 3,150 | - |
| Total: | 245,166 | 70,620 | 715,403 |
The latest figures available only show data from January to November of 2023 and as the table above shows, the largest majority of cattle imported by Turkey in this time period of 2023, came from South America.
In January to November of 2023, Turkey imported over 343,000 cattle from Brazil and over 161,000 cattle from Uruguay indicating that over 500,000 cattle (504,182) were shipped from South America to Turkey in the first 11 months of 2023.
In this time period of 2023, Ireland exported over 10,000 cattle to Turkey.
