Linking small producers to supermarkets? The role of intermediaries on the fresh fruit and vegetable market in Turkey.

A wide range of the empirical studies shows to what extend the rise of supermarkets in developing countries deeply transform domestic marketing channels. In particular, the exclusion of small producers from the so-called dynamic marketing channels (that is remunerative ones) is at stake. Based on original data collected in Turkey in 2007 at the producer and the wholesale market levels, we show that the intermediaries are decisive in order to understand the impact of downstream restructuring (supermarkets) on upstream decisions (producers). The results show first that producers are not aware of the final buyer of their produce, as intermediaries hinder the visibility of the marketing channel, their choice is restricted to that of the first intermediary. Moreover, the econometric results conclude that producers who are indirectly linked to the supermarkets are more sensitive to their requirements in terms of quality and packaging than to the price premia they set accordingly to the effort made to meet their standards. Therefore, the results question the role of the wholesale market agents who act as a buffer in the chain and protect small producers from negative shocks, but who stop positive shocks as well, and reduce incentives.supermarkets, small farmers, fresh fruit and vegetables, Turkey, Agribusiness, Production Economics, Q13, L14, D24,

Food quality and safety situation in Turkey: governance and barriers to success

The institutional environment for food quality and safety in Turkey is rapidly changing in the last decade but there are still some inconsistencies compared with the EU. High costs of establishing quality assurance systems (QAS), inefficient capacity of the institutional frame, unknown consumer attitudes, low level of production techniques and lack of awareness of producers and consumers are important weaknesses, when evaluating the current food quality and safety situation in Turkey. Whereas, rapid development of QAS, increase in consumer demands, harmonisation of legislation with the EU, increase in the research and incentives for quality production, and production potentials were determined as strong points. When analysing the socio-economic situation of farms, producers’ knowledge, perception and interest in quality with Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA), it is found that producers did not accumulate capital because of the low profits, a handicap for expanding and investing into production and product quality. Moreover, the producers' knowledge is limited and their quality perception mainly focuses on food safety. As a result, academic studies and research projects needs to be extended and the adaptation of the Turkish legislation with the EU should be completed accordingly.Food Quality Governance, SMEs Barrier for Food Quality, Food Quality Assurance, Agricultural and Food Policy, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Assessing the Spatial and Temporal Variation of Output-Input Elasticities of Agricultural Production in Turkey

Turkey, Agricultural Reform and Implementation Project, geographically weighted regression, Agricultural and Food Policy, Research Methods/ Statistical Methods, Q18, C3,

The Implications of Biofuel Policy in Turkey

Turkish Energy Regulatory Agency (EMRA) announced in September 2011 that biofuel blending will be mandatory starting from 2013 and 2014 for bioethanol (2%) and biodiesel (1%) respectively. The blending ratio will be increased to 3 percent for bioethanol in 2014 and biodiesel in 2016. This study aims to evaluate the net trade impacts of the blending regulation. In Turkey, sugar beet based ethanol production seems feasible and sustainable. Mandatory blending ratio will increase the capacity utilization of existing plants. Bioethanol blending (2%) will reduce oil imports by 255.2 million US Dollar in 2013. Contribution impact of bioethanol production will be much greater by 2016. But, since Turkey is already a net importer of oilseeds biodiesel, blending implementation will deteriorate the foreign trade balance and 2 percent blending will bring around 488.5 million US Dollar extra import increase in 2015. Therefore, net trade impact of mandatory blending is expected to be negative.  Keywords: Sustainable biofuel production; biofuel policy impact; energy policy JEL Classifications: Q16; Q

Benchmarking International Food Safety Performance in the Fresh Produce Sector

The objective of this paper is to assess food systems performance in Mediterranean countries to deliver safe food (fresh produce), and to demonstrate the capacity to the satisfaction of private customers and public regulators. To that end, an international benchmarking exercise was developed to assess the quality performance gap in food standards across countries and food systems. The study was carried out in three Mediterranean countries: Spain, Morocco and Turkey and involved an audit of the citrus and tomatoes supply chains, and a comparison with existing "best practice" in infrastructure and management practices at both firm and industry level. The aim was to identify the gaps between fresh produce exporters and a best practice company. To that end, the Spanish fresh produce supply chain was used as the benchmark since in many areas it is more advanced than elsewhere.benchmarking, performance, quality and safety, fresh produce, Mediterranean countries, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

Food Quality Assurance Schemes in Turkey

In 2008 and 2009, JRC-IPTS cooperated with Akdeniz University (UNIAKD) to analyse food quality assurance schemes in Turkey. The governance structure of food quality assurance in Turkey is explained, which includes public, semi-public and private institutes, laws and legislations, policies and research. Lack of consumer and producer quality awareness is determined as the main problem by SWOT and Logical Framework Matrix (LFM) studies. A Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) study was conducted by interviewing local stakeholders. Turkish producers' knowledge is limited and their quality perception focuses mainly on food safety. There are barriers in exports due to quality that reduce the Turkish share in world food markets. The study concludes with several recommendations on how problems in Turkish food quality assurance schemes could be effectively overcome.JRC.DDG.J.5-Agriculture and Life Sciences in the Econom

A rare benign disorder mimicking metastasis on radiographic examination: a case report of osteopoikilosis

Osteopoikilosis (OPK) is a rare, autosomal dominant bone disorder, characterized by multiple, discrete round or ovoid radio densities scattered throughout the axial and appendicular skeleton. OPK is usually asymptomatic but rarely there may be slight articular pain and joint effusions. OPK is generally diagnosed incidentally on radiographic examinations and may mimic different bone pathologies, including bone metastases. Radionuclide bone scan has a critical role in distinguishing OPK from osteoblastic bone metastases. In this case report, we present a young man with right hip pain due to OPK, whose plain radiogram and computerized tomography findings thought cancer metastasis

Pandemic boredom:Little evidence that lockdown-related boredom affects risky public health behaviors across 116 countries

Some public officials have expressed concern that policies mandating collective public health behaviors (e.g., national/regional "lockdown") may result in behavioral fatigue that ultimately renders such policies ineffective. Boredom, specifically, has been singled out as one potential risk factor for noncompliance. We examined whether there was empirical evidence to support this concern during the COVID-19 pandemic in a large cross-national sample of 63,336 community respondents from 116 countries. Although boredom was higher in countries with more COVID-19 cases and in countries that instituted more stringent lockdowns, such boredom did not predict longitudinal within-person decreases in social distancing behavior (or vice versa; n = 8,031) in early spring and summer of 2020. Overall, we found little evidence that changes in boredom predict individual public health behaviors (handwashing, staying home, self-quarantining, and avoiding crowds) over time, or that such behaviors had any reliable longitudinal effects on boredom itself. In summary, contrary to concerns, we found little evidence that boredom posed a public health risk during lockdown and quarantine. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved). </p

Using machine learning to identify important predictors of COVID-19 infection prevention behaviors during the early phase of the pandemic

Before vaccines for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) became available, a set of infection-prevention behaviors constituted the primary means to mitigate the virus spread. Our study aimed to identify important predictors of this set of behaviors. Whereas social and health psychological theories suggest a limited set of predictors, machine-learning analyses can identify correlates from a larger pool of candidate predictors. We used random forests to rank 115 candidate correlates of infection-prevention behavior in 56,072 participants across 28 countries, administered in March to May 2020. The machine-learning model predicted 52% of the variance in infection-prevention behavior in a separate test sample—exceeding the performance of psychological models of health behavior. Results indicated the two most important predictors related to individual-level injunctive norms. Illustrating how data-driven methods can complement theory, some of the most important predictors were not derived from theories of health behavior—and some theoretically derived predictors were relatively unimportant