Bendevi Palandöken, the General President of the Confederation of Turkish Tradesmen and Craftsmen (TESK), made a press statement regarding the increasing rates of price increases and the effect of the increases on inflation. Palandöken drew attention to the fact that the amount of production needed to increase in order to decrease prices and prevent price increases.
TESK General President Bendevi Palandöken, who drew attention to the fact that especially fruit and vegetable prices increased during the summer period instead of decreasing, said, “Natural gas prices increased in the summer. Inflation will definitely increase as prices for products such as electricity, natural gas and oil increase in the following period. However, the problem is that prices do not decrease during this summer season and freight services increase. A freight cost has emerged due to the fact that a special fuel is not provided to commercial vehicles such as taxis, minibuses, buses, trucks and lorries. Therefore, while citizens expect everything to become cheaper during the summer months, the increase in prices is really thought-provoking. On the other hand, unbalanced pricing policies also increase product prices. The fact that tomatoes, which are 20 liras in one market, are sold for 40 liras in another market both creates unfair competition and burns the pockets of our citizens.”
“WE MUST TRANSITION FROM CONSUMPTION TO PRODUCTION SOCIETY”
Stating that Turkey’s most important problem is high inflation, which can only be possible with increased production, Palandöken said, “In order for prices to decrease, production must first increase, but there is no more space left to increase production. The surroundings of metropolitan cities have become a concrete jungle. By opening up to construction, large cities and towns outside of the metropolitan status have brought agricultural land production to the point of ending production. People now have cheap freight rates in their own neighborhoods and surroundings, but their own gardens have become a concrete jungle. Therefore, it will be a bit difficult to expect prices to decrease. For this, what needs to be done is for metropolitan cities and municipalities to be sensitive about this issue. They need to coordinate their own agricultural lands with the Ministry of Agriculture and at least supply vegetables and fruits that can be grown there from the closest distance. Also, as you know, as the city population increases, the number of people living in rural areas or villages has decreased a lot. In other words, a productive society has eventually become a consumer society. The price of everything is increasing day by day, but unfortunately people also expect wages to increase with these increasing increases.”
“THE PRICE INCREASES THAT ARE IN A LOCOMOTIVE STATUS MUST STOP”
Stating that concrete steps to be taken to increase production will allow the economy to be restructured, Palandöken said, “Both the increases that come in advance and the increases that we call controlled increases that are passed by the electricity, natural gas, fuel inspection board, if these are done, everyone will join the frenzy of making increases involuntarily. What will be done for this is to reduce inflation. At least the increases that are a serious locomotive should be stopped. The sensitivity of the society on this issue is very important. Just as they pay attention to waste, there is a need for transportation vehicles to bring from the field to the table with little waste. On the one hand, the citizen is thinking about the increases, on the other hand, the tradesmen are saying what are we going to do, sales have stopped in the face of these prices. On the other hand, the difficulty of reaching these fees in their natural income status is growing day by day. Hopefully, as long as the conditions I mentioned, agricultural supports, do not increase for both farmers and individual businesses and become competitive with integrated facilities, it is not possible to expect prices to fall. “Citizens are asking what to do with the increasing prices every day, shopkeepers are asking how to put goods on the shelves, citizens are asking how to eat. The measures to be taken for this are clear,” he said.
