Toros Tarım is the fertilizer export champion of 2018

As the company with the highest chemical fertilizer exports in 2018, Toros Tarım was awarded the first prize by İKMİB. Having increased its fertilizer exports by 30 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year, Toros reached its highest export figure in its history.

As with the year 2017, Toros Tarım became the chemical fertilizer export champion again in 2018. Hakan Göral, the Board Chairman of Toros Tarım received the award on behalf of Toros Tarım in the night organized by Istanbul Chemical Materials and Products Exporters Association (İKMİB) representing over 10 thousand exporter companies in various sub-sectors of chemistry.

In his speech, Göral said, “We increased our fertilizer exports by 30 percent in 2018 compared to the previous year and reached the highest export figure in our history. This award that we have received means a lot to us. And from the perspective of our country, it is a great source of pride to contribute in Turkey’s foreign currency needs and to represent our country in the fertilizer sector”.

Exports from Tanzania to Spain, Argentina to India 

Emphasizing that they have exported to a very wide geographical area in 2018, Hakan Göral added, “We sell products to Morocco, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania in Africa; to Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain, Italy, Cyprus, TRNC, Romania and Ukraine in Europe; to Argentina in South America; and to India, Israel and Lebanon in the East.”

Stating that they reflected the cost increases into the sales prices to a very limited extent due to the competition in the market despite the radical increase in raw material prices in 2018, Hakan Göral added, “Despite these developments, we managed to establish a balance with our expert channels and completed the year 2018 by achieving our sales targets”. Göral stated that while 273.095 tons of exports were realized in 2017, the exports figure reached 353.897 tons with a remarkable 30 percent increase resulting from the newly added export markets in 2018.

Reminding that Toros Tarım, the largest fertilizer producer of Turkey, accounts for 38 percent of the total installed production capacity of the country, Hakan Göral said, “We have produced 1.603.702 tons of fertilizers in total at our Ceyhan, Mersin, and Samsun factories with an 86% capacity utilization ratio on average. This also means that we have grown in terms of both capacity and production volume compared to 2017”. Göral continued by saying, “Throughout the year, we have operated our factories efficiently with a high capacity utilization ratio, together with our factory employees and all our stakeholders, with a continuous improvement perspective, and through lean manufacturing practices oriented towards sustainability of our business.  This enabled us to successfully adapt to the highly competitive market conditions and we also reaped the fruits of our activities oriented towards increasing efficiency in all our processes from supply to production and distribution”.

“Our priority is Turkish farmer”

Emphasizing that their capacity utilization ratios were very high and they sold nearly all of their production, Hakan Göral, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Toros Tarım, said, “While we want to further increase our export rate in 2019; Turkish farmers and dealers will, of course, be our priority at all times. As an indicator of the value that we attach to our farmers, we have established a technical team offering gratuitous services up to the point of our farmers’ villages and even their fields, together with our mobile technical teams comprising our agricultural engineers and our fully-equipped training bus that we have prepared in every region of Turkey in 2018. In order to allow our farmers to produce more efficiently, this technical staff will share valuable information with them for 365 days a year and continue to provide them with advice on plant nutrition issues in particular”.

Fertilizer suitable for the needs of every region

Reminding that they opened the first fertilizer R&D center certified by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Republic of Turkey within their Mersin production facilities, Hakan Göral explained the company’s long term vision with the following words: “We aim that our R/D center will help us develop the fertilizer needed by Turkish farmers, which is the most suitable for the soil and climate structure of the region, and also create a leverage effect for exports. We intend to put our center firstly at the disposal of Turkish agriculture, and then into service of export markets."