Food

Türkiye has a robust agriculture and food industry that employed almost 18 percent of the country’s working population and that accounted for 5.5 percent of the country’s GDP in 2021 with a financial contribution to the overall GDP of USD 45 billion.

The features that make the sector strong include the market size associated with the country's young population, dynamic private sector economy, strong tourism income and favorable climatic conditions.

In Karaman, which has fertile lands, industry has developed mostly based on agriculture. Karaman has an important place in the country's production in the biscuit and bulgur industry, which is a subgroup of the manufacturing-food industry. Approximately one third of Türkiye's biscuit production and 20% of bulgur production come from Karaman.

The Food Manufacturing Industry has triggered various sectors such as packaging, raw materials and machinery, and Karaman has become a Food City that is completely self-sufficient and has a foreign trade surplus.

Although it varies from year to year, Karaman is among the top 3 provinces in apple production in Türkiye. There is a large-scale fruit juice processing facility in Karaman with an annual production capacity of approximately 20,000 tons. With the developing fruit growing in the province, fruit processing facilities will also increase.

Karaman, which has a very good point in the production of durum wheat, is a city which has a potential in bulgur and pasta production. There are 15 milk and dairy processing plants in our city, three of which are large scale. All these sectors in the food industry contribute to the brand of Karaman-Food City. Agriculture based food industry enterprises in the province of Karaman are 341. Most of these enterprises are producing cereal, flour and bakery products.

Biscuit, Chocolate and Confectionary Sector

Biscuit production started in small plants at the end of 1960s and became one of the most important industrial products of Karaman. The sector grows with investments made every year, and now 400+ varieties of biscuits, chocolates, wafers and cakes are produced in modern factories in Karaman.

Karaman has become one of the leading center of biscuits, chocolates, cakes,wafers production in Türkiye and even in the World. Our companies in the sector receive international quality awards every year.

There are around 20 companies in the sector in Karaman. The main products of these firms are biscuits, cakes, wafers, chocolate products and confectionery. These companies are exporting from many different customs of the country, mainly from Karaman and Istanbul. Despite exports from different customs; Karaman has the 12% export share of  "Bakery Products" and among the leading provinces in "Cocoa, Chocolate and Confectionery" exports.

Bulgur (Cracked Wheat) and Pulses Sector

Bulgur, which was produced in houses for thousands of years, was produced for the first time with the factory established in Karaman to meet the needs of the military at the beginning of the last century. After this date, the number of bulgur producing factories has increased every day in Türkiye.The bulgur (cracked wheat) production is made in many cities of Anatolia; but the main production cities can be listed as Karaman, Gaziantep and Çorum. Karaman is the leader of the bulgur sector. Karaman is the manufacturer of an important share of Türkiye's bulgur (cracked wheat) need. Karaman has the %20 of Türkiye’s total bulgur (cracked wheat) production capacity. As a result of the quality and production method, Karaman is the leading exporter of the bulgur(cracked wheat). Approximately 80% of the bulgur (cracked wheat) export of Türkiye is issued by Karaman.

For the executive summary on food and agricultural exports from TR52 region, please click