Interview with Turgut Yeğenağa on Komili

We conducted a pleasant interview with Turgut Yeğenağa, Country Leader of Bunge Gıda Türkiye, on the subject of Komili. Mr. Yeğenağa also discussed the company's social responsibility projects and the Komili Olive Harvest Festival. [caption id="attachment_129197" align="aligncenter"] Turgut Yeğenağa[/caption]

Would you tell our readers about yourself and your background?

Due to my family's business, I have been involved in agricultural trade throughout my life. After my education at Tarsus American College, I obtained my undergraduate degree from Koç University, Faculty of Business Administration. During my studies at Koç University, I spent one year at Lake Forest College in Illinois, USA. Subsequently, I completed a master's degree in Marketing at Çukurova University, and then a second master's degree in Financial Engineering and Risk Management at Özyeğin University. I began my professional career in the agricultural sector as an Agricultural Commodities Trader at Grains & Fourrage S.A., where I gained experience in oilseed crushing, grain trading and raw material trading in the animal feed sector. My career later continued at Cargill, where I quickly assumed the position of Turkey Trade Director. There, I was primarily responsible for managing all grain and oilseed trading in Turkey and coordinating with other Cargill centers. I also worked on trade-structured finance (TSF), inventory management, supply chain management and sustainability projects for customers. After Cargill, I joined Bunge in 2014 as Agricultural Trading Director, heading all the company's grain, oil and oilseed trading, and have been serving as Country Leader of Bunge Gıda Türkiye since January 2020.

Last year was a year when pandemic effects were felt intensely, and these effects have not yet ended. How were your food sector and brand affected by this situation? Were there positive and advantageous aspects as well?

We can say that concerns arising from the pandemic encouraged people to live and eat more healthily, and to establish closer contact with nature. As the value of working for the future increased, contributing to a more livable world became the responsibility of everyone and every brand. While brands applying high quality standards stood out even more during the pandemic through knowledge accumulation and expertise, consumers came to attach different importance to concepts such as sustainability, nature and the environment. Rising health concerns during the pandemic and demand for access to safe food led to concepts of nutrition, health and wellness coming to the fore. Consumers began simplifying their lives, reading labels and researching materials used in food packaging. Brands that develop products and services tailored to the needs of the period stand out from their competitors. We foresee that reflecting the strategies required by the period into the business model as innovation in the normalization process will be an important factor in erasing the negative effects of the pandemic. Olive oil tops the list of food products most subject to adulteration, and some products claimed to be natural seriously threaten public health and the future of the sector. The fact that every process from soil to table is conducted under control is indispensable for quality olive oil. It must be emphasized that expertise in olive oil brings naturalness with it. As the 143-year-old reference brand of the olive oil sector, we present olive oil to our consumers in unparalleled quality.

Could you provide information about your Komili brand and product varieties?

With its expertise dating back to 1878, Komili brings authentic olive oil to consumers with its unique taste, aroma and quality. In the olive oil category, we produce olive oils serving different purposes of use such as extra virgin, virgin and riviera olive oil without ever compromising on quality. In the extra virgin olive oil category, we have products such as Komili Early Harvest, Komili Stone Pressed, Komili Cold Pressed, Komili Organic Extra Virgin and Komili Unfiltered, which we present to our consumers to suit different palates in our "Special Series". Additionally, we add value to the sector with products such as Komili Gourmet Olive Oil, which won first prize in the IOC-UZZK "Light Fruitiness" category last year and is produced in limited quantities periodically, and Komili 400+, a highly valuable product made from the exceptional olives of trees aged 400 years and above. Our product portfolio also includes other vegetable oil categories: sunflower and corn oil.

What is the importance of R&D for Komili? Could you tell us about the R&D projects you have been conducting recently?

Komili is a 143-year-old brand. Perhaps the most important reason we are Turkey's lovemark today is that we never compromise on quality and respond to our consumers' needs in a timely manner according to conditions. In our R&D efforts while developing our products, we work with both our domestic and international teams. We conduct many important studies, but those standing out in this period are our work on functional products and sustainable packaging. In the recent past, we launched innovative products for the out-of-home consumption market and we continue to work in this area. We will have good news for you in the coming period.

What is Komili's perspective in the name of a more sustainable world?

If you could share any social projects you have implemented in this regard, we would appreciate it. We approach the olive tree that gives life to Komili with infinite respect and affection. We believe that the immortal tree is the natural and cultural heritage of these lands. With our "We Care Like Our Eyes" social responsibility project launched in 2018 for ancient olive trees, we preserve our Monument Olive Trees, carrying the past into the future and contributing to environmental and social sustainability. Within the project scope, we identify monument olive trees that are also significant ecologically and have witnessed history, and we pioneer their registration and protection. Thus, we ensure that our olive trees, each of which is valuable and carries monumental quality, are carried into the future so that future generations can lead better lives. Monument trees, representatives of longevity, are precious to us as the heritage of nature, symbols of resilience, health and long life, and by representing both the past and the future, they are highly valuable. As Komili, within our project to protect monument olive trees; to date, 81 monumental olive trees worthy of protection have been identified within the boundaries of Ayvalık district, and many have reached the registration stage. Our project, which we started in Balıkesir, Ayvalık and are now continuing in the Manisa region, has all of Turkey as its target. We are happy as we receive good news from new regions for pioneering the protection of olive trees in the 400-year-old and above monument tree category in our country, and we are hopeful for future generations with the trees that are our cultural and natural heritage to pass on to our children. Viewing olive oil as cultural heritage, we see all our work carried out in hand with our regional producers who inherited it from their ancestors to support better agricultural practices and to carry olive oil culture into the future as a whole. Our work carried out in cooperation with our producers in the Ayvalık region, the books we have published to support olive oil culture, our now-traditional Ayvalık Olive Harvest Festivals and our "We Care Like Our Eyes" Monument Tree Project, among many other initiatives, bring us the joy of increasing interest in and love for olive oil day by day.

With the traditional Komili Olive Harvest Festival, you keep interest in olive oil alive. Could you tell us about the documentary that came from the Komili Olive Harvest Festival?

With the Ayvalık Olive Harvest Festivals that we hold every year in October-November and that have now become traditional with serious followers, we transform the harvest into a real festival together with local residents and visiting guests, from the streets to the olive groves, from tasting events to discussions. Last year, we crowned the Komili Olive Harvest with a different project. We produced the first olive harvest documentary with our Chefs Obsessed with Olive Oil. With the sense of responsibility that comes from being the leading brand in the sector, we produced our documentary film "A Olive Harvest Story", which viewers witness the unique adventure of this precious golden liquid that nature has given us, from the first harvest to the table. The filming of our documentary took place in Ayvalık. In Turkey's first olive harvest documentary, we brought together chefs obsessed with olive oil, veteran businesspeople and expert figures in the sector. Our chefs; Elif Edes Tapan, Danilo Zanna, Fatih Tutak, Ömür Akkor and Somer Sivrioğlu with their passion for both Ayvalık and olive oil, and veteran businesspeople; Muhtar Kent, Şerif Kaynar and the Madra Family shared their knowledge about olive oil with us in our documentary. We wish "A Olive Harvest Story" documentary, with all its details and impact, to shed light on olive oil culture and the future in this regard. With a total of 50 minutes of narration, our documentary can be watched on Komili's Youtube channel as well as various platforms. Do you have any new projects you will be presenting to the sector in the coming days? We would appreciate it if you could share briefly. We are working on a new project that we aim to announce in the coming days, which excites us greatly. As a social responsibility work in the field of education that we believe will stand out and add value to the lives of future generations, I cannot provide more information about this project at the moment, but I can say that we are very excited about it.