Goat and sheep dairy

Turkish people have a history of eating meat and dairy products from goats and sheep; this is another booming sector for the country and one in which farmer Özer Türer has invested.

Mr Türer farms in Seferihisar County near Izmir, milking 3,000 Saanen goats and 2,000 sheep – a cross breed of Osfiriz (a German milk and meat breed) and Sakis, a local Izmir breed. The milk is processed on the farm into Keecheese branded cheese and UHT milk. He also produces both sheep and goat meat, butchered on the farm, as well as growing herbs, pomegranate, olives, almonds and mandarins. 

Like Mehmet Doğan, Özer Türer is driving to grow his business. He is already buying liquid milk from other farms in the region, taking his processed outputs to 2,000 tonnes of liquid milk and 5,000 tonnes of cheese per year; but he suggests that he could sell double this quantity given the market demand. He is also building his animal numbers to reach 10,000 sheep and goats over the next five years. 

Progressive farmers like Mehmet Doğan and Özer Türer are an elite but growing breed in Turkey as both local and international investors start to embrace the food market opportunity – an opportunity that seems to have no bounds.