The World Bank Group has approved $750 million in financing to support Türkiye's agriculture and food sector, aiming to raise productivity, improve access to credit for farmers and create better-paid jobs in rural areas.
The loan funds the Türkiye Agrifood Sector Transformation for Rural Jobs and Growth project, known as TARGET, according to a statement issued in Washington and reported on September 25.
Expected impact
The project is designed to expand farmers' access to finance, support agrifood businesses and producer organizations, and make the sector more competitive. According to the World Bank, about 225,000 farmers are expected to benefit. The lender estimates the program will create around 110,000 additional and better-paid jobs and mobilize $670 million in private capital.
Jean-Christophe Carret, the World Bank's country director for Türkiye, said the country has enormous potential to strengthen the competitiveness and sustainability of its agrifood sector.
Treasury and Finance Minister Mehmet Şimşek said cooperation with the World Bank on productivity would continue. He linked the loan to the government's aim, set out in its Medium-Term Program, of securing long-term external financing, and said it would provide strong support for agriculture and rural development.
Why agriculture matters
Agriculture remains an important employer in Türkiye, particularly outside major cities, and food prices have been among the main drivers of the country's high inflation in recent years. Officials have repeatedly identified food and housing as key factors keeping consumer price growth elevated, and improving farm productivity is seen as one way to ease supply-side pressures.
The sector is also a source of export revenue. Türkiye is the world's leading hazelnut producer, and hazelnut exports alone brought in $1.92 billion in the first nine months of 2026, according to the Black Sea Hazelnut and Hazelnut Products Exporters' Association.
The World Bank is one of Türkiye's largest multilateral lenders, and its financing comes at a time when the government is trying to lengthen the maturity of external borrowing and reduce funding costs, as the economy contends with higher energy prices and market volatility.
Sources
- World Bank approves $750 million financing for Türkiye's agrifood sector
- Türkiye's hazelnut exports exceed $1.9 bln in first nine months
Photo: ampersandyslexia / CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
