Lavazza leads Turkish coffee bean sector, company says

Lavazza Turkey board member and CEO Sertaç Akyüzol says the coffee market in Turkey is composed of three main groups.

Lavazza registered 110-percent growth and attained a 50-percent market share in 2010, while Lavazza Turkey registered a 66-percent growth in four sales channels, according to a recent company press release.
Lavazza leads the coffee bean market both in Europe and Turkey, the company said. In Turkey, HORECA, Best Coffee Shop, Lavazza Blue and Bakkal24 offer the company’s coffee automat services.
Lavazza’s Turkey operations are carried out by Best Export Import with a 160-person staff. In addition to the four sales channels, the company is working on new sales channels in 2011 for office and home markets, the release said.
According to data provided in the press release, Best Export Import increased its total turnover of its four sales channels from 15 million Turkish Liras to 25 million liras over the past year.
In unit-by-unit evaluation, HORECA increased its turnover from 8.6 million liras to 12.8 million liras, Best Coffee Shop from 0.6 million to 4.7 million liras, Lavazza Blue from 0.5 million to 1.7 million liras and Bakkal24 from 5.3 million to 5.8 million liras.
Since the coffee group was established in 2004 the investment amount registered by Best Export Import in all four sales channels has totaled 15 million.
The company has also invested a further 1.2 million liras in brand marketing and marketing communication activities to increase the brand awareness of Lavazza in Turkey, the company said, predicting that its investment in brand marketing would increase to 2.4 million liras in 2011.
Evaluating the sector’s structure, Lavazza Turkey board member and Chief Executive Officer Sertaç Akyüzol said the coffee market in Turkey fell into three main groups, namely Turkish coffee, instant coffee and Italian-style coffee.
Turkish coffee leads the market with a 60-percent market share, followed by instant coffee at 30 percent and Italian-style coffee, such as espresso and cappuccino, at 10 percent, he said.
However, such trends are likely to change in the future, Akyüzol said in the statement.

Turkish citrus exporters target $10 billion in 2023

Mediterranean Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Exporters’ Union Chairman Ali Kavak says Turkey’s chief markets for fresh fruit and vegetables were Russia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Romania, Ukraine, Germany and Serbia. AA photo

Citrus exporters registered 1.2 million tons in exports and provided $800 million in foreign exchange input in 2009 but they are targeting $10 billion for Turkey’s centennial in 2023, according to the head of an exporters’ union.
“We believe that we will fulfill the target that we have set before ourselves and increase exports by 20 percent over [2009],” Mediterranean Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Exporters’ Union Chairman Ali Kavak told Anatolia news agency last week.
“We registered 2.7 million tons of fresh fruit and vegetable export [in 2009] and provided $2 billion foreign exchange input – but with citrus alone we provided $800 million input with 1.2 million tons export,” he said. “But our goal is hit 10 billion dollars in exports by the Republic turns 100 in 2023.”
But the year 2010 was marked by difficulties, according to Kavak. “Due to the temperature hovering above seasonal norms in 2010, the citrus sector has suffered,” he said, adding that citrus cultivation required cold weather.
Turkey’s fresh fruit and vegetable cultivation is approximately 40 million tons per year, 3.5 million tons of which comes from citrus, Kavak said.
Kavak said Turkey’s chief export markets for fresh fruit and vegetables were Russia, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Romania, Ukraine, Germany and Serbia.
At present, the country exports to 93 countries worldwide and is also growing each year with the addition of new markets, he said.
Citrus of strategic importance
Kavak said the citrus sector was of strategic importance for Turkey and that the sector, which provides employment for around 5 million people, should be further improved.
“For that, we have set a series of targets for ourselves,” Kavak said. “These targets include establishing new markets like Japan, England and France.”
Setting his sights particularly on Japan, Kavak said Turkey had been unable to export citrus to the East Asian country for the past 40 years but added that it would begin sending grapefruit there sometime in January.
“Japan is exporting 180,000 tons of grapefruit annually and it imports 80 percent of that from the United States. We are planning to seek further export opportunities with this country on lemon and cherries. We are also planning export initiatives with countries with which we have no export ties yet,” he said.
Kavak said a publicity campaign launched in November had contributed greatly to an increase in exports, adding that Turkey had registered a 40-percent increase in exports with Russia since then.
He also said the publicity campaign would continue in Russia, Ukraine and Azerbaijan until Jan. 11 and that they expected similar success in the latter two countries.

Turkey’s first literary museum to open in Adana

The museum is housed in the Dişçi Ethem Mansion in Seyhan district. AA photo

The first of five literary museums to be established in five Turkish provinces by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism will open in the southern city of Adana.
Adana Provincial Culture and Tourism Director Osman Arık said that restoration work was ongoing on the museum building, located in the Dişçi Ethem Mansion in the Seyhan district.
“The building, which has architectural features of the first years of the Republic period, has been undergoing restoration for five months and the work is almost done. The museum’s name is planned: ‘Yaşar Kemal Literary Museum and Library’. There will also be a café in the building,” Arık said.
He said research about Turkish poets and literary figures like Karacaoğlan, Dadaloğlu, Orhan Kemal and Yaşar Kemal, who are from Adana, will be housed in the new museum. “We also want to get the private collections of Adana local artists and exhibit them in the museum.”
In the museum, which will also serve as a library, visitors will also be able to access other literary works and resources by local writers. “We will host literary events in the building. We have support from various institutions and organizations.”
Other literary museums are set to open in Istanbul, Ankara, Diyarbakır and Erzurum.

Newcomers unveiled at Edisyon

Edisyon, an art shop with an exhibition space for independent creators of photography, prints, paintings and design objects, is now presenting new works from new contributors.
Open Tuesday to Sunday between 12 p.m.to 19 p.m., the space is expecting art lovers to discover the new works. It is possible to buy art works, photographs, prints, illustrations, paintings, design objects in Edisyon. The space serves both as an art shop and an art library.
It is possible to discover blossoming artists at Edisyon, while also finding unseen works of well-known artists.
Currently the newcomers to Edisyon are Aslı Narin, Barbaros Kayan, Baysan Yüksel, Bora Başkan & Koray Kantarcıoğlu, Can Güven, Devin Yalkin, Damla Özdemir, İmge Özbilge, Lavina Yelb, Mert Yüksel, Özgür Erman, Sait Mingü, Sinem Mucur, Ulas Eryavuz, Yusuf Sayman, Zeynep Beler.

Works of Kahlo and Rivera to be displayed in Istanbul

December 23 - March 20
The works of Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, two prominent Mexican painters, will be exhibited in Istanbul’s Pera Museum between December 23 to March 20, 2011. This will be the first time the paintings of Kahlo and Rivera will be displayed in Turkey.
This December Istanbul will see the works of Diego Rivero and Frida Kahlo, two globally renowned Mexican figures of 20th century art in Pera Museum.
Brougth to the Pera Mueseum from Gelman Collection, the exhibition introduces to art lovers with total of 40 works of two outstanding Mexican figures.
This will be the first time the paintings of Kahlo and Rivera will be displayed in Turkey.
The works included in the couple's extensive collection, which also encompasses 20th century Mexican art, include the most outstanding Frida Kahlo self-portraits, which reflect the profound traces of her artistic personality, as well as rare examples of Diego Rivera's canvas paintings. This globally acclaimed collection was previously presented to audiences through a limited number of exhibitions outside of Mexico.
Apart from the most favored Kahlo works of the Frida Kahlo Retrospective organized in Berlin and Vienna in 2010, the exhibition at Pera Museum also includes Diego Rivera's paintings.
Generating wide interest as much with their unique characters, life stories, and intriguing relationship, as with their oeuvre, the two painters will meet with art lovers.
Collectors Jacques and Natasha Gelman spent a significant portion of their lives in Mexico; the works included in the couple's extensive collection, which also encompasses 20th century Mexican art, include the most outstanding Frida Kahlo self-portraits, which reflect the profound traces of her artistic personality, as well as rare examples of Diego Rivera's canvas paintings. This globally acclaimed collection was previously presented to audiences through a limited number of exhibitions outside of Mexico.
Apart from the most favored Kahlo works of the Frida Kahlo Retrospective organized in Berlin and Vienna in 2010, the exhibition at Pera Museum also includes Diego Rivera's paintings. The works of Frida and Diego, who inspired the motion picture and literary worlds with their oeuvre and unconventional lives, can be visited at Pera Museum until 20 March 2011.
 Married to Diego Rivera, Kahlo's work is remembered for its "pain and passion", and its intense, vibrant colors. Her work has been celebrated in Mexico as emblematic of national and indigenous tradition, and by feminists for its uncompromising depiction of the female experience and form. Mexican culture and Amerindian cultural tradition figure prominently in her work, which has sometimes been characterized as Naive art or folk art. Her work has also been described as "surrealist", and in 1938 one surrealist described Kahlo herself as a "ribbon around a bomb".
After the 1940s, the world of objects in Frida’s early oil paintings are replaced by an entirely different world of drawing that stems from the realm of fantasy. For Kahlo, the crucial factor was that drawings could be executed with very few pieces of equipment. They were more spontaneous and direct than the complicated oil paintings. As she lay in her sick bed, Frida was able to work easily on her drawings with pencils or sepia ink.
With all those muddled and profound fantasies, these masterful drawings thus take us to an entirely unique world of form that is usually not associated with Frida. At times, easily identifiable portraits of friends and relatives, as well as Frida’s self-portraits also find their way into the drawings.
Rivera's large wall works in fresco helped establish the Mexican Mural Renaissance. Between 1922 and 1953, Rivera painted murals among others in Mexico City, Chapingo, Cuernavaca, San Francisco, Detroit, and New York City. In 1931, a retrospective exhibition of his works was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.
The exhibition will stay open till March 20, 2011.
Parallel Events to the Exhibition
Parallel to the exhibition two important talks will take place. The first talk entitled "Frida Kahlo: Portrait of a Life" by Salomon Grimberg, an expert on Mexican artsits, will take place on 22 January Saturday. The second talk will be given by photography artist Cristina Kahlo who is the granddaughter of Cristina Kahlo; Frida Kahlo’s sister.
Pera Museum's film events, Pera Film, will be showcasing the program "Viva la Revolución! Films on the Mexican Revolution" between 14-30 January 2011.

New tram cars to smooth Istanbul commutes

The 37 new tram cars are expected to decrease the time between trains to a snappy two minutes.

The jam-packed tram lines between Istanbul’s Kabataş, Zeytinburnu and Bağcılar districts are to get a little breathing room with the addition of 37 new tram cars to the two popular routes. The Istanbul Municipality has also finished pedestrianizing Sultanahmet Square to protect the texture of the historical peninsula.
Ninety streets on the peninsula closed to private vehicular traffic starting from Saturday.
“Due to the lack of cars among the Kabataş, Zeytinburnu and Bağcılar districts, commuters using the tram were experiencing hardships. By providing 37 new low-lying cars furnished with advanced technology and air-conditioning, we will smooth the commute,” said the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality Mayor Kadir Topbaş, introducing the low-lying cars to members of the press on Friday, the last day of 2010.
Twelve of the 37 new cars, which will decrease the time between trains to a snappy two minutes, were activated on Friday. The new additions increase the number of cars available for the two tram lines to a total of 92. The final 25 cars will enter service next month. So far, 71 million euros have been spent on the project.
While piloting a test drive with members of the press from Kabataş to the Sultanahmet tram station, Topbaş suddenly braked two times, causing many press members falling on the ground. Cameramen lost their balance and some reporters who couldn’t grab the support poles hurt their backs.
The heart of the historical peninsula, Sultanahmet Square has been cleared of private vehicular traffic to minimize damage to the historical artifacts. Official and emergency vehicles will be allowed on the streets. Within the scope of this pedestrian-friendly project, tourists arriving to the square in buses will finish their journey on the trams.
“Tourists disembarking from cruises at the Galata port will commute with tram cars specially provided for them at the Karaköy station,” said Topbaş, noting that this project will be implemented in 2011.
The municipality will repave the newly pedestrianized streets with granite pavestones, an undertaking financially supported by the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency. The construction will be completed by May so as not to bother the tourists and tradesmen, said Topbaş.
“Previously, some people told me that they would take their foreign guests by different routes to prevent them from seeing the ugliness of certain parts [of the peninsula]. Now, there won’t be such a need.”

Grant applicants asked questions on 'decorum'

Small and Medium Industry Development Organization, or KOSGEB's, 27.000 Turkish Lira grant project is attracting a great demands although the applicants are asked eccentric questions in the pre-application examinations, like how they would act in a social gathering

The application examination involves questions like how candidates would behave in a social gathering or what would they do if they were forced to play chess against former world champion Gary Kasparov. (AA)

A new grant to small entrepreneurs in Turkey is attracting great demand, yet applicants have questioned the utility of parts of the application process which, among other queries, asks people what they would do if they played chess against Gary Kasparov.

The 27,000-Turkish Lira grant is part of the General Entrepreneurship Education Program from the Small and Medium Industry Development Organization, or KOSGEB, which aims to teach successful candidates how to turn their business dreams into a successful business plan, according to Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodities Exchanges, or TOBB, member and Konya Chamber of Commerce, or KTO, Chairman Hüseyin Üzülmez.

Üzülmez said the chamber was the project’s business partner in the Central Anatolian province of Konya, adding they started the application admissions on Monday.

“The number of applications was way beyond our expectations,” he said, adding that in the first three days, there were already 1,000 applications.

“The only precondition for application is that the applicants must not have any sort of business registration in the Treasury or the chamber of commerce. Other than that, we are approving eligibility for anyone regardless of their level of education,” Üzülmez said.

Several steps before grant

“During the application process, we make the candidates fill out a 25-question test. After the test results are evaluated, the candidates will be called in for interview. And those who successfully pass all these steps will be admitted to an education seminar in January which will take 60 hours in total,” he said.

Applicants, however, are asked everything from how they would behave if forced to play against former chess world champion Kasparov to how they would act in various social situations. The exam for the grant also asks candidates, “What attracts you when you are planning to produce a good or service?” “Which part of the following do you think is the most important step of a business plan?” “Which one of the following is the most important trait of today’s entrepreneur?”

Üzülmez said the chamber expected to receive around 5,000 applications just from Konya by the time the application process ends Jan. 7, 2010.

Those whose projects are ultimately chosen will be granted 27,000 Turkish Lira for one year.

A great majority of the applicants are primary-school graduates who currently have no job, as well as housewives who want to open stores to sell food or trousseau articles, Üzülmez said.

Many men, similarly, want to open stores to sell wholesale or retail goods rather than open manufacture bases.

At the same time, many of the applicants are also university graduates, the chamber head said.