According to the report by the Foreign Agricultural Service (FAS) of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), due to dry weather conditions, Turkey will harvest a smaller wheat and barley crop in the 2025/26 marketing year, and will therefore need to increase imports to meet domestic demand.
In its latest forecast, FAS predicts a 15% decline in wheat production compared to the previous year, to 16.3 million tons, as a slight increase in sown areas will not compensate for yield losses.
Against the backdrop of expected production reduction, FAS has increased its wheat import forecast for the 2025/26 marketing year to 10.3 million tons, which is more than three times the previous season's figure (3.2 million tons). If the forecast is realized, consumption volume will be the largest since the 2019/20 marketing year.
"Production may decrease even more, depending on the extent of drought damage," FAS stated. "In the main wheat-growing regions of central and southeastern Anatolia, precipitation was insufficient, against the backdrop of higher-than-normal winter temperatures..."