Tractor market attracts foreign investors
Posted by meb at August 28th, 2008
Foreign investors have been pleased with the announcement that Turkey will scrap 700,000 tractors that are over 20 years old, a measure that has been ordered by the government.
Fazlı Özaltın, vice president of the Turkish Farming Devices Manufacturers Assembly, told the Anatolia news agency that the Industry and Commerce Ministry has started work on scrapping the old tractors. “Some Turkish farmers had been using the same tractors for 53 years, and they still use very old ones. The tractors that Turkish farmers use are relatively old when compared to those in Europe,” Özaltın noted. Underlining that a great demand will emerge in the Turkish tractor market with the handover of 700,000 old tractors, Özaltın asserted that for this reason alone more than 30 foreign companies had decided to invest in Turkey in the last two years. “They want to profit from this situation in Turkey,” he said, referring to foreign investors.
Özaltın said the government’s decision to replace the old tractors would benefit both farmers and tractor producers in Turkey. Noting that it was significant that the new-age tractors would consume 30-35 percent less diesel oil than the old ones, Özaltın said this would also aid in the state’s endeavors to subsidize fuel oil. The Turkish government, instead of supplying direct monetary support, supplies farmers with cheap diesel oil, free of extra charges. “Scrapping the old tractors will provide savings also because the old ones break down repeatedly; it’s expensive to have to fix them all of the time,” Özaltın added.
source: Today’s Zaman
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