Turkish companies attend international food and beverage exhibition in Paris

Salon Internationalde l'Agroalimentaire (SIAL), namely, the world's largest international food and beveragetradeexhibition, was opened yesterday in Paris by Turkey’s Food, Agriculture and Livestock Minister Mehdi Eker and French Agriculture Minister Stéphane Le Foll. Speaking on the sidelines of the exhibition, Eker said that 256 Turkish companies took place on an area of 10,000 square meters at the fair and praised the agricultural cooperation between Turkey and France. "The relations between the two countries are more promising in this era. A meeting of the executive committee will be held between Turkey and France next month. We hope bilateral relations will be improved and some progress will be achieved in terms of the acquis chapter about agriculture as part of Turkey's membership talks," Eker said. Stating that the rapid growth which has been ensured by Turkish companies as part of the fair since 2010 has also attracted the attention of Le Foll, Eker said that he would meet with Le Foll and discuss the agricultural production and food industry in Turkey. "Unfortunately there are certain hindrances in the presence of EU with regard to our food products export. We would like these hindrances to be lifted. If positive developments occurred about the issue, it would yield very beneficial results both for Turkey and the EU," Eker added. Turkey, ranking the third in the category of countries with the highest rate of increase in terms of surface area and number of participant companies, attracts great attention at the exhibition which hosts 5,900 firms from 100 countries.