Turkish Mercantile Exchange Electronic Warehouse Receipt Market is Celebrating Its 4th Year

26.07.2023

Turkish Mercantile Exchange (TMEX) Electronic Warehouse Receipt (EWR) Market has completed its fourth year of operation. Over the course of its 4-year operational period, EWR trading value increased 16 times compared to the 4 years before TMEX, reaching 130 billion Turkish Lira.

Launched on July 26, 2019, to bring agricultural producers and consumers together on a centralized platform and support the stable growth of the agricultural sector and the economy, TMEX EWR Market, as it marks its fourth year, has provided transparent and secure services to farmers, traders, industrialists, and investors.

EWR certificates facilitate the trading of products stored in a licensed warehousing system, promoting the registration of products through the expansion of licensed warehouses and enabling them to be traded on organized markets, thus contributing to farmers’ access to EWR collateral financing while preventing the informal economy.

TOWARDS 200,000 REGISTERED INVESTORS IN THE 1000TH SESSION
In its fourth year of operation, the EWRM completed its 1000th trading session, with the number of registered investors increasing by more than six times. Nearly 200,000 investors, predominantly farmers, registered with TMEX to conduct transactions. As commodity market intermediary institutions have not yet begun their operations, orders are currently submitted directly to TMEX by buyers and sellers via trading terminals and web services. However, a significant increase in this number is expected when commodity market brokerage firms become operational in 2024.

Investor registrations for TMEX EWR Trading Platform are processed through 112 Commodity Exchanges acting as agents. EWR transactions are settled through Takasbank, the central clearing house and  the Central Securities Depository and Trade Repository of Türkiye, coordinated with 25 banks and brokerage firms.

During TMEX’s 4-year operational period, the trading value exceeded 130 billion Turkish Lira, and the trading volume surpassed 33 million tons. EWR for all 17 products listed for trading on TMEX, including wheat, corn, barley, and sunflower seeds, have been successfully traded. Turkish Grain Board actively conducts EWR buying and selling transactions for strategic products within its jurisdiction, using both trade report and multiple price – continuous auctions.

LICENSED WAREHOUSES AS A GUARANTEE OF FOOD SUPPLY SECURITY
The products covered by EWR traded on TMEX are stored in modern technology-equipped licensed warehouses, ensuring that they are kept in a healthy and safe condition, with minimal losses and waste. The licensed warehouse capacity, has increased by over 100%, surpassing 9.2 million tons. The number of licensed warehouse operators has risen to 175, providing services in 44 provinces, 132 districts, and 245 different locations. In the medium term, the goal is to increase storage capacity to 20 million tons, which will allow for the provision of healthy and secure services to approximately 55% of Turkey’s total grain production, which is around 36 million tons.

TMEX R&D Center
TMEX has been conducting various projects, including the transfer of the EWR Market to a intermediary system with the TMEX Technological Transformation Project (TÜRİS). The Project also includes the futures market infrastructure. Other projects that have been executed by the R&D Center are as follows: the Artificial Intelligence-Supported Market Oversight Project, and the Agricultural Disclosure and Transparency  Platform Project, to enhance transparency and data availability in the agricultural sector. The R&D Center was approved by the Ministry of Industry and Technology as of March 23, 2021.

About TMEX

Established in June 2018, TMEX engages in exchange activities facilitating trading of electronic warehouse receipts issued by licensed warehouses and futures contracts with an underlying of electronic warehouse receipts. TMEX collaborates with key stakeholders including the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges, the Turkish Ministry of Trade, the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, the Turkish Ministry of Treasury and Finance, and other partners. Its collaborative efforts extend to various areas such as the digitization of the food supply chain from farm to fork, the widespread use of electronic warehouse receipts, the development of contract farming and the promotion of licensed warehousing.