Date posted: December 8, 2013

Hidayet Kadiroglu, the CEO of Elvan Food, one of the major companies in the chocolate and candy industry said that their exports extended to 130 countries thanks to the Turkish schools all over the world.

Kadiroglu underlined that their business grew thanks to Turkish schools and Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), and added, “Currently Turkish schools are in 150 countries and our aim as Elvan Food is to reach that number.”

Eskişehir Entrepreneurs and Industrialists Assocaition  (EGSİAD) organized a conference named “Global Commerce and Export Tips”. Dr. Rustu Bozkurt from Dunya Gazette and Hidayet Kadiroglu, CEO of Elvan Food, were the speakers in the conference.

The opening remarks were delivered by EGSİAD president Sami Türk who said that EGSIAD is the largest businessmen organization in Eskişehir and a member of TUSKON, which is active in 140 countries. He continued by saying “One of our goals is to engage all of our members in international export. And we know that our global power is directly related to amount of export we do.”

Elvan Foods CEO Hidayet Kadiroglu stated that, as a group, they have recorded a growth rate of %1800 over the last 3 years. Pointing out that now they are exporting to 130 countries, Kadiroglu said that they owe this achievement to Turkish schools. He said that they were able to find markets abroad through the Turkish schools; they could start exporting and were able to grow so much. Kadiroglu added: “Once the Turkish schools opened abroad, we paid visits to Turkish teachers there. Even during their visits Elvan Foods did market research. The parents of the students at the Turkish Schools met with them to start business with Turkey.

After schools opened, Turkish businessmen moved to these countries. Thanks to these businessmen, we started to be permanent in those countries. Thus, it was TUSKON and the Turkish Schools who made our way to success. Everywhere we went, we had the opportunity to invest and sell much easier due to these schools.

Kadiroglu stated that they were able to establish factories in first Azerbaijan and then Egypt; they had the opportunity to stretch out to Asian and African markets. Elvan Foods raised the number of export products to 10. “It is a very pleasant situation that there are Turkish schools in 150 countries; as Elvan Foods we export to 130 countries.  Our export goal is to reach the number of schools. We are following those schools.” Kadiroglu added.

Great things are happening,” he said. Economy columnist of Dunya newspaper Dr. Rustu Bozkurt noted that Turkey is one of two countries that missed the industrial revolution. The other country is China, he said.  Dr. Bozkurt said that the world is entering a new period, and Turkey never had so many chances throughout its existence.  He also expressed that commerce has a very myopic vision in Turkey and this is a major problem. Dr. Bozkurt, while drawing attention to globalization, said that Turkey is unlikely to reach its goal of 500 billion dollar export by 2023, without making large investments, focusing on technology and increasing competitiveness.

[Original news is in Turkish]

Source: Zaman Newspaper , November 29, 2013

Tags: Hizmet and business | Turkey |