INTRODUCTION Turkish food retailers and producers are bringing their products to the UK
TURKEY The taste of things to come

Besides kebabs, salads and sandwiches using traditional ingredients such as olives and houmous, local cuisine is witnessing a fusion of international styles but with a twist

Turkey’s popularity as a holiday destination has rocketed in recent years, giving visitors a taste for the country’s cuisine. Yet the average British shopper is unlikely, as yet, to find a wide range of Turkish products on the supermarket shelves.
Almost everyone will have tried Turkish delight, the jelly-like sweet flavoured with flower essences and covered in icing sugar. Look carefully and you might find dried apricots or hazelnuts, exports of which netted the country more than $400 million in the five months since September 2001, and perhaps a little wine and olive oil too.

However, the range of foods available may be about to expand. Turkey is among the countries lining up to join the EU, so it is hardly surprising that the UK is being targeted for exports of the country’s produce.
There are some 24,000 food-producing enterprises in Turkey, a little over half of them making flour and flour products. Of the rest, nearly a fifth are involved in dairy production and 12 per cent are involved in fruit and vegetable processing. The remainder deal in products as diverse as vegetable oils and margarines, sweets, meats and fish.

Perhaps even less surprising is the way in which the Western European food industry is pushing its way into Turkey. Tesco kicked off the New Year by acquiring a 50 per cent stake in Turkish consumer goods retailer Kipa, which operates three hypermarkets in Izmir. Kipa plans to open two more this year.
Last year, France’s Carrefour opened a hypermarket and shopping centre in the capital, Ankara, and the company has put together a special team to market Turkish goods worldwide. McDonald’s Turkish subsidiary recently launched the kofteburger, or ‘meatball-burger’, to cater for local taste. Meatballs, with spicy tomato sauce, are a favourite.

Meat-processing company Vanet, which operates in the eastern region of Turkey, is taking the opposite tack. It has decided to produce and market fast foods such as hamburgers, ketchup and mayonnaise. All this despite a recent contraction in the fast-food market, which was hit by last year’s economic slow-down, forcing McDonald’s to close 15 outlets.
Clearly, Turkey is still seen as a promising market for processed meat products, however. Maret, another meat processor, has launched turkey sausages and salami on the domestic market, aiming to sell between 50 to 60 tonnes a month.

Food retailers in Turkey are tending to merge into big supermarket chains. Sabanci Holding, one of the largest conglomerates there, is to invest $80 million in the sector this year. Sabanci aims to increase its supermarkets to 23 and its discount chain, DiaSa, is expected to expand from 90 to 135 stores. Last year, the holding company invested $100 million in a joint venture with Carrefour. Another conglomerate, Dogan Holding, is merging its two food retail subsidiaries – Tansas with 194 shops and Makrocenter with 11.

Food producers are expanding too. Some, like ice cream maker Algida, part of Anglo-Dutch consumer goods giant Unilever, are trying out new marketing methods. Last year, it opened its first café under the Algida brand name in Istanbul.
The creation of Café Algida is part of Unilever’s strategy of developing new business models for its various brands of products. The café, at 33 Bagdat Street, situated on the Asian side of Istanbul, describes itself as “the ice cream creation centre, where the world’s ice cream culture is shaped by local Turkish tastes”.

‘People are eating out more’ Izzet Karaca

Market leader Algida is trying to convince the Turkish public that ice cream is not just for the summer but can be enjoyed all year round. Since Unilever launched the Algida brand 12 years ago, ice cream consumption has more than doubled in the country, although it remains far behind the annual UK average of eight litres per capita.
Izzet Karaca, Unilever Turkey’s business unit director for ice cream, says: “When we started, ice cream consumption in Turkey was 0.3 litres per capita – now it is one litre per capita.

Mr Karaca points to two main trends: “First, people are eating out more, so we see a big opportunity in the domestic market – Café Algida is an example. The second trend is that the Turks used to eat heavy sweets such as baklava, but are now eating less. That is why we launched our all-year-round advertising campaign for ice cream.
“Innovation is the key word,” he adds. “If you look at our portfolio, there are some base products, which are classics. Magnum Classic remains in the portfolio and will in future.”
Like other firms, Algida is developing a local slant to complement traditionally foreign dishes, using pistachio nuts or hazelnuts in its ice creams to expand market share. Indeed, just as Istanbul stands at the crossroads of Europe and Asia, it follows that Turkish cuisine is witnessing a fusion of international styles.

Mr Karaca says contemporary Turkey is a “mosaic of a country” where different peoples combine to create a unique culinary identity. “There are so many nationalities, coming from Europe, Asia, Arabia, Central Asia, so everyone brings in their culture and cuisine. That’s why Turkish cuisine is rich and that’s what we want to reflect in Café Algida and in our portfolio.”
Some of these influences are from far distant shores. Turkish frozen and canned food producer Dardanel Gida is to produce sushi this year with its Japanese partner Tosi Suisan Kabushiki Kaisha. The two firms have done a deal for breeding tuna in Antalya in the south. The popularity of international staples such as croissants and pasta suggest influences slightly closer to home.
The complexity of the Turkish diet, coupled with shifting social trends, is reflected throughout the industry. Big Turkish corporates have invested heavily in recent years to modernise food processing and improve marketing to win more business overseas.