Interview with Esin Mete: Great Honor to Ms. Esin Mete

7/26/2013

Ms. Esin Mete, Vice President of Tekfen Holding’s Agri-Industry Division and Chairwoman of Toros Agri-Industry Group, was elected as the President of International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA). For the next two years, Ms. Esin Mete will serve as the President of IFA, which consists of 540 members from 84 countries. We had an interview with Ms. Esin Mete who has turned over a new leaf in the history of IFA as the first female president of the association about the process that led to her presidency and her future objectives.

First of all, could you please give us some information about IFA?
IFA (International Fertilizer Industry Association) is the only international organization representing the fertilizer sector all over the world. It was founded in London in 1927. It has 540 members from 84 countries today. Its members are not only the fertilizer manufacturers. It has members from the sectors that merchandise fertilizers, from equipment sellers and even from media. That is to say, IFA is an organization covering all the activities related to fertilizers. Its objective is to allow production and distribution of an environment friendly and productive fertilizer for food safety in the world as well as to create policies, carry out studies and make disseminations for balanced and sufficient plant nutrition all around the world. For this purpose, IFA is in cooperation with many similar organizations and bodies. For example, IFA is a member of the organization called IPNI (International Plant Nutrition Institution) which carries out scientific researches about plant nutrition at an international level. Toros also became a member of this organization in Chicago. IFA receives the scientific developments from IPNI and transfers them to its members. Furthermore, it carries out introductory activities in various areas, emphasizes the issues such as safety, health and environment in the production process and carries out studies on issues like food safety. IFA works on every field that you can think of in relation to fertilizers.

Fertilizer sector is closer to food sector, isn’t it?

Yes, as the fertilizer sector, we see ourselves under the food sector, not the chemistry sector. Because, as a sector, we make a significant contribution to sustainability of food production in the world.. Therefore, IFA carries out some activities in close cooperation with Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).

What kind of a structure does IFA have?

IFA is a structure established by the members from all around the world. There is a General Assembly established by all the members of IFA; there is a Council elected by the General Assembly; and there are an Execution Committee and a President elected by the Council. Furthermore, another team elected among the Execution Committee ensures the communication between the Execution Committee and the General Secretariat. The General Secretariat does not have a voting right in these committees. It is completely situated at the back stage and carries out the operational activities. The Board that we call the EMG (Executive Management Group) consists of a small group of 4-5 people selected by the president to work together. The people in this group are required to be the persons who are able represent both the world and the management of organizations operating in different fields as much as possible. Therefore, Bahrain, Chile, Canada, Morocco etc. are included in the EMG. In addition to these, there are other committees such as the Production and International Trade Committee, Agriculture Committee and Technical Committee within IFA. Now we are establishing a new committee called Communication Committee. All these committees have their own chairman. These chairmen and the vice chairmen representing the regions within IFA constitute the Execution Committee with the EMG. Every member pays a fee. We also make a payment from, for example, the manufacturing amount or our sales. The more you produce, the more you pay.

Do companies or persons become members to IFA?

Companies can be members to IFA. When we say 540 members, we mean the companies only. I represent Toros Agri-Industry Group. If one of the company representatives wishes to work in the IFA organization, then he/she carries out that work personally. For example, I fulfill my duty in IFA as Ms. Esin Mete. If any person wishes to take part in the committees within the organization, he/she registers by himself/herself. However, if he/she wishes to take part in, let’s say, the Execution Committee or the EMG, it is necessary for him/her to have worked in the several committees of IFA and in order to be able to see the issues from a broader view, he/she needs to be a manager of a company and ready to take responsibility.

How did the membership of Toros to IFA start?

Gönder
Gönder
Toros has been a member of IFA since 1981, the year it started the production. At that time, we had a consultant named Ms. Mizyal Göreç. She was the former Trade Manager of Fertilizer Factories. Initially, Mr. Necati (Akçağlılar) had appointed Ms. Mizyal as a representative in order to purchase fertilizer raw materials, to get into contact with the merchants, thus, to enter the fertilizer sector. Then, Mr. Erhan (Öner) and Mr. Necati joined IFA together. Mr. Erhan had also acted as the IFA President between the years of 1993-95. Of course, the presidents are not elected considering the companies, but the persons. There is only one more company that managed to have more than one president from the same company like us. And that is PotashCorp, a world’s giant.

What do you think has been effective in this success?

The foreign relations of Toros are very important. Of course, we need to make mention of Mr. Necati with respect here. Both Mr. Erhan and I learned how to establish foreign relations, how to get into contact and how to maintain these contacts by him. The reason why we could come into prominence among the other companies must be that we, as Toros, do our job well. Of course, it is not an easy process. For example, I worked hard in order not to neglect my duties in IFA. I attended to many meetings held by FAO representing IFA. I met many people coming from various countries and the FAO president. In such meetings, you are immediately recognized as the person representing the fertilizer sector.

What processes have you been through until you were elected to this duty?

Initially, I became the Vice President for Middle East. After that, I was elected for the EMG in 2007. I was an ordinary member for the first two years. After 2009, I worked as Chairwoman of the Finance Committee for two years and I acted as the Vice President for Sustainable Development from 2011. The management always changes in May every two years because this is the way IFA works.

What are the requirements for becoming the president?

Of course, you become the president by election. The President is elected by the Council. First you need to be nominated as a candidate. In order to be eligible to be nominated as a candidate, it is necessary to have worked in IFA for a certain period, to have hold a responsible position for a while and most importantly, to have passed through the Finance Committee within the EMG. Because, only this way, you can master the subjects such as what IFA’s income is, how it can be increased, where the budget is spent etc. In other words, it is impossible for a person who has no relevance with the past issues of IFA to become a president. It is necessary to take pains with these activities. For example, I have actively worked in the Board, that is to say the EMG, since 2007. Besides, it does not have any monetary return. You completely spend from your own time. There is an additional load brought by IFA in terms of travels. But, in return, it both provides prestige and the steps you take are known all over the world. Where is IFA’s President from? She is from Toros Agri-Industry Group, Turkey. This has an unbelievable prestige. You continuously receive invitations; we can generate new business opportunities for our company in the places we visit. While you were only known by certain people previously, but now you are known by everyone.

How much will your presidency in IFA take you from your daily schedule in future?

In fact, it has already taken a lot of my time to date. From now on, I can have a little more travels. Of course, my responsibilities have increased. But, business operations of the company should never be disrupted. You have to fill that gap by sacrificing from your private life. Otherwise, business operations of the company shall not wait for us.

Toros has given two presidents as well as the first female president is from Toros.
Fertilizer sector is a sector in which men are more dominant. In fact, there are a lot of women working in the sector but none of them managed to come to upper levels. It is the same in the world as well. In this sense, there is a revolution in IFA now.

What will be on your agenda during your presidency?
There are two groups of activities that need to be carried out: The first one is to explain the importance we give to food safety and the contribution of our sector to it to the world in a better way. In order to meet the food demand of the increasing world population, we need to get more crops from our arable lands. To realize it, the plant must be fed in a correct and balanced manner. During my two-year presidency, I aim to concentrate more on “nutrient stewardship” which is the correct and balanced plant feeding. IFA has already started activities about it. My objective is both to deepen these activities with other various organizations such as IPNI and to disseminate results of the activities. Furthermore, we will also try to prioritize various cooperation models in the meetings to be held with national fertilizer associations and agriculture authorities of the countries. We, as Toros, already started a project: It is to tangibly show to the farmer that more crops can be cultivated from the fields fed in a correct and balanced way by organizing various trials and activities in order to increase the use of fertilizers in Turkey. Sharing the results of such activities with other countries and companies gives us a lot of satisfaction. We have had a similar experience in the past with zincous fertilizers and we have been shown as an example to all countries. Another important objective I wish to realize during my presidency is to put a committee called “Communication and Public Relations” into action. IFA already has such a duty and activity. However, in accordance with the increasing demand and importance for communication, I wish to create it as a separate committee like the Agriculture or Production and International Trade Committees and to make it work in that way. I also give importance to smooth running of the continuing projects of IFA such as Health-Safety-Environment issue and the “Zero-Famine” project. HSE (Health-Safety-Environment) is an issue that needs to be considered important in our sector. IFA has chosen its dissemination as the objective. Therefore, “benchmarking” has been carried out among the companies and the companies, which take measures about the issue and decrease the risks, are awarded every year.

The second subject is the things to be done within the association. The regulations of IFA have a long history; I mean that even I do not know its issuing date. Since then, it has never been updated. For this reason, we have already initiated the renewal activities for the regulations of IFA. The most important point is to consider the regional distribution. Until today, we have given a vice presidency even to the smallest countries and provided the representation for everyone. We would like to keep all our members together. One of my objectives is to make the processes transparent in the organization so that there will not be any reasons for any misunderstanding, nobody will think a lobbying activity is going on behind closed doors and everybody will know what is going on.

IFA has a mechanism that is supplied by participation of the members, doesn’t it?

Absolutely! I also would like to talk about this issue. It is very important to personally participate in the activities of IFA and to benefit from it. When you enter IFA’s website, you can see what is going on all around the world and what kind of scientific studies are carried out. Such information exchanges among the members are very beneficial. I think it was three years ago when an Indian member came to me asking “How is the agricultural support provided in Turkey? Can you give me some information about it?”. I received the required information from the Ministry. I had it translated into English and sent it to him. Of course, the number of farmers is 110 million in India and the number of farmers is 3 million in Turkey. It is impossible to apply our system in India exactly the same. But they somehow drew inspiration from it and changed their system. It means that the information exchange at IFA is beneficial for everyone as long as the participation is provided.

Do companies make a commitment about which areas they will give information in before they become members?

There are no written commitments; however, they are obligated to provide any information requested by IFA. If you want to receive information, you have to give information, but, the information belongs to the past so that it is not to conflict with the Competition Act. Only when the big projects are considered, they give information about what kind of a project they will make. After all, IFA has nothing to do with money and fertilizer prices. Its objective is only to take part in the world fertilizer policy and to go into contacts and undertakings and to carry out awareness raising activities about it. We are only interested in how we can serve to the food sector.

Do you think that the importance of fertilizers is well understood?

In the past, IFA was not in the foreground as much as this. Today, the number of people interested in the fertilizer sector has considerably risen. However, there are some people who have not fully understood the importance yet. We tell them that: The arable lands do not increase in the world, but decrease. On the other hand, the population increases. In order to be able to feed this population, you need to get more crops from one square meter. And the only way of this is the use of fertilizers. Otherwise, you cannot feed a population of 9.5 billion in 2050.

Are there any social responsibility projects that you are carrying out as IFA?

In March, a representative named David Nabarro came from FAO. He works as the Food Safety and Nutrition Special Representative in the United Nations. They started a movement with “Zero-Famine” motto. Because, 40% of the world population are still going to bed hungry.. The objective of this activity is to provide a savings of 20% until 2020 from production to consumption. It is an activity for reviewing the whole food chain from the rats eating the wheat on the field to the bug-infested crops and from wasting excess production to logistic problems. Especially, there are very important activities in relation to Africa. Africa is one of the most virgin continents. Besides, it is a continent that has serious problems related to hunger. The problem there is not only the production; there are also other problems like logistics. IFA also carries out activities with some of the associations in Africa. Despite all the problems, there is also a very big potential in Africa. For this reason, big companies make investments there by spending huge amounts of money.

How long will your presidency last?

It is a two-year duty. If you want to do something, two years is a reasonable period. When you start a project, you cannot see the results immediately within a few months as in the companies. You need a longer time to make progress. I took over the presidency in Chicago and I will hand it over in Istanbul in 2015. The big annual meeting of IFA is held every year in different cities upon invitation of the members and thus the contributions and interests of the members are attempted to be increased. Istanbul will host IFA for the third time. There is no other city in which the IFA meeting was held three times. This will also make a great contribution for making our name known.

We would like to congratulate you once again and wish you success in your activities.

Photos:
Ms. Esin Mete, Vice President of Tekfen Holding’s Agri- Industry Group and Chairwoman of Toros Agri.
The new Board of IFA (from left to right), Mostafa Terrab (Chairman of the Finance Committee), Eugenio Ponce (Senior Vice President, Chile), Esin Mete (President, Turkey), William J. Doyle (Immediate Past President, Canada), Charlotte Hebebrand (Director General), Abdul Rahman Jawahery (Vice President for Sustainable Development, Bahrain), Arifin Tasnif (Vice President, Indonesia).
NEW PRESIDENT & IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT
Ms. Esin Mete has taken over the Presidency of International Fertilizer Industry Association (IFA) from Mr. William J. Doyle, Chairman and CEO of PotashCorp.