Turkey: government intervenes in the poultry market
Prices for chicken, an important and affordable staple food, have risen by between 150 and 250 percent in Turkey since the start of the year. The Turkish Competition Authority had already identified a price-fixing cartel in 2025 and imposed heavy fines on 13 poultry companies. Now the Ministry of Justice has placed those same firms under trustee supervision. The national press questions this strategy.
Trustee supervision is not the solution
Cumhuriyet questions why the government has resorted to trustee supervision to tackle the skyrocketing poultry prices:
“Why was it the Ministry of Justice and not the Ministry of Trade that carried out this operation? Why was the strategy of trustee supervision chosen? Let's be clear here: appointments of trustees are ineffective and have no public support. ... Sources in Ankara have said that if the Ministry of Trade had been entrusted with the anti-profiteering operation, the businesses in question would have had to be shut down, and the food supply chain would have been plunged into crisis.”
Selling off the rule of law
Protecting consumers from excessive prices is legitimate, but appointing receivers to oversee producers undermines the legal system, warns Sözcü:
“If companies in the sector have colluded to fix prices at the expense of consumers, this must be thoroughly investigated. If there is a cartel, it must be exposed. ... The critical point, however, is that what begun as an outcry over expensive chicken meat is turning into a case of criminal conspiracy. ... If receivers are appointed to manage poultry farmers today, who will be targeted tomorrow? ... Protecting citizens' eating habits must not lead to a sell-off of the rule of law. ... The price of chicken is certainly important. But the price of justice carries far more weight.”