Erdoğan promises 1,000 'cooperative supermarkets' amid high food prices

Erdoğan at a Agricultural Credit Cooperative market in İstanbul. (Photo: AA)

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President and Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chair Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has promised to open about a thousand cheap grocery stores.

During a visit to a grocery store run by the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives of Turkey in İstanbul yesterday (October 3), he said, "As you see, this market is pretty fair in terms of products, quality and prices."

"Of course, there are instructions that we have given to the Agricultural Credit Cooperatives for a rapid increase in [the number of these stores]," Erdoğan said. He added that they plan to open about 1,000 stores in the first stage with each store being 500 squaremeters in size.

"Thus, we will hopefully be in an effort to deliver cheap and high quality products to our citizens and to balance the market," he remarked. "I have seen this while shopping here and I'm happy for that."

Turkey has seen a high increase in food prices over the past year. By the end of August, the annual increase in the food inflation rate was over 29 percent, according to the Turkish Statistical Institution (TurkStat).

President Erdoğan and his government have blamed large grocery chains for raising prices.
"The necessary operations will be carried out against grocery chains. Five grocery chains collect all the product and the market turns upside down," Erdoğan said on September 23.

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