Interview with Ramadan Küçük, General Manager of Cargill End Products Turkey

We conducted a pleasant interview with Ramadan Küçük, General Manager of Cargill Industrial Products Turkey, about his professional experience in the sector, the products and investments the company has offered, and the Turkish market.

Could you briefly tell our readers about yourself, your education and professional background?

I was born in Northern Cyprus in 1979. I graduated from the Business Administration Department of Ohio Wesleyan University in 2000. That same year, I began my professional career in Turkey as an independent auditor at Arthur Andersen and Ernst&Young Audit and Consulting firms. Since 2003, I have been working at Cargill, with the first 9 years in various finance positions. In 2012, I led the establishment of Cargill Industrial Products Turkey and held positions such as Business Development and Sales Manager. In 2014, I managed the acquisition project of Alemdar Kimya and incorporated Alemdar Kimya into Cargill Industrial Products Turkey operations. Currently, I serve as General Manager of Cargill Industrial Products Turkey.

Could you provide information about Cargill Global? Could you talk about the development process of Cargill, which began its operations in Turkey in 1960?

Cargill is a global company founded in 1865, which marked its 150th anniversary last year, operating in the food, agriculture, finance and industrial products sectors. Worldwide, with 150,000 employees in 70 countries, it shares its knowledge and experience with farmers, customers, local governments and communities. Cargill's history in Turkey dates back to 1960. Cargill began operations in Turkey in 1960 with a domestic partnership agreement and started operations as Cargill in 1986. In Turkey, we have three production facilities: a corn processing plant in Bursa Orhangazi, an edible oils production facility in Balıkesir, and an industrial products production facility in Gebze Dilovası, as well as our head office in Istanbul and representative offices in Ankara and Adana, through which we serve our customers with over 500 employees.

Could you provide information about Cargill's products and services in Turkey? In which sectors are you active?

Cargill operates in the food sector, particularly in the starch and sweeteners market, and in recent years, through acquisitions, has begun operating in edible oils and animal nutrition. Moreover, by acquiring the Alemdar Kimya facility in Gebze Dilovası in 2014, we entered the industrial and bio-industrial products sector. Additionally, since 2014, our head office in Istanbul has been operating as a regional office serving a total of 19 countries in the Middle East and North Africa regions beyond Turkey.

Could you tell us a bit about the portfolio of Cargill Industrial Products Turkey?

As Cargill Industrial Products Turkey, we have a rich product portfolio derived from natural resources that meets various industrial applications and the needs of different sectors. Indeed, we continue to increase the number of products sourced from renewable resources and offer nature-friendly and high-performance alternatives to non-renewable raw materials. For example, specialty starches for the paper, corrugated cardboard, construction, textile and adhesive sectors; natural oils used in oil field applications; thickeners and emulsifiers; textile softeners; environmentally friendly film agents, oils and lubricant products used in the paint, ink and coatings sector; harmless thickeners, oils and lubricant substances for household care and cleaning products; lubricant products made from natural oils for hydraulic applications and functional fluids; soy-based, fire-resistant dielectric fluids specially developed for use in transformers; and polyols used in diverse product groups such as furniture, bedding, automotive and carpets are among our main product groups and application areas.

What investments have you made to your Dilovası facility to date?

It has been approximately 2.5 years since we acquired our industrial and bio-industrial products production facility in Dilovası. During this period, we invested approximately TRY 45 million for both reactivating certain units and introducing new technologies and know-how. We continue to do so. While the facility previously operated at approximately 15 percent of existing technological capacity, it has now reached nearly full capacity levels. Our employment rate has tripled within 2.5 years, and through technologies new not only to our facility but also to Turkey, we have brought important know-how to our country.

One of these investments was reactivating the distillation unit. Did new products enter your portfolio through this? What are your goals in this area?

The distillation unit was one of the existing but inactive units when we acquired the old Alemdar Kimya facility. We invested approximately TRY 15 million to reactivate the existing distillation unit and also introduced new technologies. Now we can produce distilled sunflower fatty acid and stearic acid. Stearic acid is one of the main raw materials for many sectors in the chemical industry, including plastics, rubber, PVC, textiles and paraffin, and was annually imported in quantities averaging 50,000 tons to meet Turkey's needs. Following our project, domestic production of stearic acid was initiated in Turkey for the first time. Our goal is to substitute 10 percent of total imports in the first year. In the coming years, we plan to increase our import substitution ratio and capitalize on exports. Notably, stearic acid is a new product in Cargill's industrial products portfolio, and the Dilovası facility of Cargill Industrial Products Turkey is the first and only stearic acid-producing facility among all Cargill locations worldwide. Moreover, through the new technology and know-how we have introduced, we continue our efforts in closely analyzing our customers' needs and developing innovations in line with those needs, and particularly in offering stearic acid in different forms to the market.

What other projects among those recently implemented are underway?

As Cargill Industrial Products Turkey, we have implemented many important projects. One of the most important of these was beginning functional systems production for the first time in Turkey through the new technology, know-how and recipes we introduced. We conducted first production in August 2015, after which production from one of Cargill's other locations, the facility in Baupte, France, was gradually transferred to our Dilovası facility. As of October 2016, our facility became Cargill's sole production center for functional systems. Currently, as Turkey's first and only functional systems producer, with approximately thirty different recipes, we supply the domestic market with a high-value-added product that is an important raw material especially for ice cream manufacturers, and we export to as many as 57 countries across a wide geography stretching from the Middle East to South America. We are currently in the final stages of another important project. We will begin production of Envirotemp 200, one of Cargill's global transformer oil brands, at our Dilovası facility. Envirotemp 200 is a synthetic transformer oil with high fire resistance, high quality and high value-added. By making a new investment to bring one of the world's few technologies to our Dilovası facility, we added both new reactors and established a specialized electrical laboratory. With this investment, we will both produce synthetic transformer oil for the first time in Turkey and Dilovası will be Cargill's only location globally where all needs for synthetic transformer oil production are met.

What are your expectations regarding the "Turkchem Chem Show Eurasia" fair? Could we have your views?

We participated in Turkchem Chem Show Eurasia for the first time in 2014, which brings together leading representatives of the chemical industry. This year, we are pleased to introduce our further expanded and innovative product portfolio, which includes firsts for the Turkish chemical industry, to our customers.