The Industrial Situation of in Turkey, its Prospects and Future Trends

Selcuk Ataman and Abdulvahit Sayaslan, Tokat (Turkey)

Summary

Starch is a renewable biopolymer isolated from various starchy plant sources through the wet- milling technology. Isolated starch, in native and modified forms, finds uses in food and nonfood industries, including glucose and high-fructose sweeteners, paper, textile, adhesives, pharmaceuticals, fuel- and food-ethanol and biodegradable plastics. (corn), , and cassava () constitute the main sources of commercially produced starch around the world, depending on their abundance and price. Of the 45-50 million metric tons (mt) of total starch produced worldwide annually, more than 80 % is wet-milled from maize, ~8 % from wheat, ~6 % from potato, ~5 % from cassava and <1 % from minor sources such as rice, barley, oats, sorghum and sago. The USA is the major producer of starch with a global share of around 50 %, where maize starch alone accounts for more than 90 % of that figure. The EU is the second largest producer of starch with a global share of 15 to 20 %. As with the USA, maize represents the major source of starch (45-50 %) in the EU; however, production of wheat (25-30 %) and potato (20-25 %) is also of significant economic value. Especially, wheat starch production has significantly increased in the EU for the last three decades.

Turkey is in the process of accession negotiations to the EU with a dynamic and growing economy. Although small-scale commercial production of starch in Turkey dates reportedly back to 1935, Turkish starch industry has grown tremendously in the last two decades as a result of major investments. Currently six starch production plants belonging to five different companies, three of which are multinational firms, operate in Turkey. Those starch plants account for more than 95 % of total starch production in Turkey, and all utilize maize as the starch source. The production capacity of those plants is estimated to be about 1 mt/year; yet actual production is about 0.5 mt/year for the last several years. This is because the starch industry in Turkey is excessively oriented towards the starch conversion products due to the strong demand from the food industry. Approximately two-third of the isolated starch is converted into glucose and high-fructose syrups, and the remaining one-third is used in the food, paper, adhesive and textile industries. As of 2001, however, the so-called “sugar law” was enacted, which set a production quota of 10 ±5 % for the starch-based sweeteners based on total sucrose production from sugar beet. Since then annual sucrose production has remained around 2.3 mt, thus limiting the production of starch-based sweeteners around 0.35 mt/year. It seems quite impossible in the near future to alleviate the quota set for the starch-based sweeteners due to the strong pressure of sugar beet farmers and NGOs on Turkish policymakers. Therefore, Turkish starch industry should seek alternative utilization routes for the starch. One viable alternative, if not the best, appears to be the utilization of starch for the production of fuel-ethanol, since Turkey is largely dependent on highly-priced imported oil. Another option for the starch industry might be the replacement of certain proportion of maize with that of wheat for starch production because the co-product of wheat flour wet-milling, vital wheat gluten, has marketing potential in Turkey for improving content and/or quality of flours used for bakery products. Additionally, utilization of starch in biodegradable plastics is likely to help improve the capacity utilization of Turkish starch industry. In summary, the starch industry in Turkey is currently running at about 50 % capacity; however, the industry is of growth potential given the excessive concentration of the starch industry is gradually shifted from starch-based sweeteners to such value-added starch products as fuel-ethanol, biodegradable plastics and other fine chemicals.

Beamer-Presentation shown at the meeting.

Address of author:

Prof. Dr. Abdulvahit Sayaslan Department Food Engineering, Gaziosmanapasa University TR Tokat 60240 -Turkey-