Türkiyes Aquaculture Sector During the Covid-19 Pandemic.

OpenAlex · English

2020 started with a global pandemic and within months the Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) spread to almost every country in the world. Due to the long incubation period and high contagiousness, most countries started quarantine and social distancing became a new way of life. Türkiye started to fight against the disease by taking the necessary precautions during the first cases of COVID-19. For this purpose, a COVID-19 guide was prepared by the Turkish Ministry of Health and a weekend curfew was applied for the first time on April 11, 2020. However, pandemic measures were not implemented in inland waters or in macro and micro-scale enterprises engaged in aquaculture. In this study, we examined the potential impacts of COVID-19 on the Turkish aquaculture sector and discussed the impacts of the disease control strategies implemented by the Turkish government on the fisheries sector. This study was conducted in two stages. Firstly, it examined the effects of COVID-19 on the fishing sector in 2020. Secondly, it discussed the total (sea, inland water, brackish water and aquaculture) production amounts in the Turkish Fisheries sector between 2020-2021 and 2022. Related-Samples Friedman's two-way analysis of variance by ranks were used to reveal the statistical difference for each group (sea, inland water, brackish water and aquaculture) between 2020-2021 and 2022. Before performing this test, the assumption of normal distribution was tested using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test. The error level was set as 0.05 in statistical analysis and calculations were performed using IBM SPSS 25.0 program. According to the results of this study, the total production (sea, inland waters, brackish waters and aquaculture) in Türkiye in 2022 was over 800 thousand tons. However, the amount of production obtained from fishing in Türkiye in 2021 was 6% less than that in the previous year. In recent years, Türkiye’s aquaculture exports have increased significantly in parallel with advancements in fisheries production and processing technologies, positioning the country as a net exporter of fisheries products. The COVID-19 pandemic presented significant challenges to Türkiye's aquaculture sector. Disruptions in production processes, labor losses, and logistical problems negatively impacted the efficiency of the industry. While the closure of restaurants and the stagnation of tourism decreased the demand for fresh fish in the domestic market, the demand for processed seafood increased. Exports also declined due to the slowdown in global trade. However, the process of digitalization accelerated, with online sales and social media marketing gaining importance. Additionally, Innovative solutions to enhance sustainability such as increasing product diversity by introducing new species were emphasized. The Turkish government provided incentives to support small and medium-sized enterprises and tried to help the sector recover from the crisis. As a result, although COVID-19 created short-term challenges, it also presented long-term opportunities such as digitalization and sustainability. In this study, some useful suggestions are made to ensure the sustainability and growth of the fisheries sector in the context of COVID-19. Furthermore, as Türkiye shares similar sectoral characteristics with many European countries, these findings are expected to serve as an example for other nations.