DER TÜRKISCHE TOMATENSEKTOR – REGIONALE GESICHTSPUNKTE UND RÄUMLICHE MARKTINTEGRATION

Tomatoes have the largest share among fruits and vegetables, which add substantially to the gross agricultural product in Turkey. We describe the structure and development of this sector from the year 1990 onwards, covering farms in primal production, trade facilities, processing firms, and marketing channels. An analysis of retail prices for table tomatoes in 22 provinces and their dynamics follows. Finally we employ a threshold vector error-correction model to analyse integration among the markets for table tomatoes in the presence of transaction costs. The results show a ring of integrated provinces along the coasts of Turkey, while the interior provinces are rather separated. In some cases price transmission only occurs when deviations from an interprovincial price equilibrium exceed a certain threshold