Wal-Mart plan may help Turkey
Posted by meb at February 1st, 2008
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., last week launched bold social initiatives. The world’s largest retailer outlined a plan to push for more energy-saving products for Wal-Mart shoppers and work with other retailers on developing social and environmental standards in the foreign companies with whom they do business.
Wal-Mart may even someday install windmills or solar panels at its stores allowing shoppers to charge electric vehicles, and it is talking with automakers about a possible role in the hybrid and electric car market, although Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Lee Scott said those ideas were still out there.
A Wal-Mart statement said these steps will include making its most energy-intensive products, such as computers, microwaves and water heaters, 25 percent more efficient within three years. It will also seek to cut power use by the flat-screen televisions it sells by 30 percent by 2010.
These bold initiatives offer an important opening for Turkey, said Kaya Boztepe, the CEO of the New York based company Eco-Green. Back in 1999, when working at Wal-Mart, Boztepe was among the first people who offered to sell organic textile products at Wal-Mart.
“Eco-textile and organic food products offer a great opportunity for Turkish producers. Turkey produces 65 percent of world’s organic cotton,” Boztepe said. He added that organic cotton can grow only in specific areas of the world. “It grows in a small part of California and Texas and by the Nile River in Egypt. Organic agriculture needs good quality of soil and water,” Boztepe said.
“Normally it takes about three years to switch to organic agriculture while it takes only 18 months in Aegean and Southeastern parts of Turkey. This is a great advantage” said Boztepe. “Now everybody knows the future lies in organic products.”
Boztepe said Turkey should use Wal-Mart’s social initiatives to its advantage. “With a little incentive, subsidy and education Turkey can be a world player in organic products,” he added. “Turkey has the competitive advantage, if used correctly, in Wal-Mart’s social initiative plan.”
Source: Turkish Daily News
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