Dear member,

The year 2020 passed with the fight against the Covid-19 outbreak in our country as well as in the whole world. Unfortunately, we lost many of our citizens during this pandemic. In addition, the Elazig earthquake in the first period of the year and the Izmir Earthquake in the last period hurt us once again. From here, I wish urgent recovery to those who lost their lives in the epidemic and earthquake, and those who were treated with mercy from God.

The effects of the Covid-19 pandemic were felt with great economic impact not only in our country but all over the world. Due to the pandemic, many businesses had to suspend their commercial activities and some had to terminate them.

As Balıkesir Commodity Exchange, we continued our efforts to serve our members in the best possible way without compromising our quality during this painful period. Cash shortage of living of our members, our parent organization, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges under the leadership of Turkey launched under the protocol signed with Denizbank breath though we have tried to contribute to the sources separated by a modicum of credit. We also signed the Ziraat Bank Başakkart Supply Chain and Halk Bank Paraf Card Supply Chain Protocols. I hope that these campaigns, which will be activated in 2021 within the scope of the protocols made, will be beneficial to all of our provincial and national economy, especially our valued members.

We continued this as well as Turkey's first and only fresh meat Geographical Indication Balikesir Lamb continuously working to increase the awareness of Geographical Indications and brand promise. We continued to expand the network of our Safe Food Chain by making agreements with many producers, slaughterhouses, butchers, delicatessen, supermarkets and restaurants.

We started the Brand City Balıkesir Project in cooperation with Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality, Balıkesir Chamber of Commerce, Balıkesir Chamber of Industry, Borsa İstanbul and GMKA. Our efforts continue to increase the awareness of our city in the national and international arena. Turkey admiringly watched Masterchef program to our country, we are involved in this project. Jury members have told us to mark our geographical and social media promotions they do after all our programs Balikesir Turkey Lamb was recognized better. Our next goal is to carry our work to the international platform and to obtain the European Union Geographical Indication certificate.

In 2020, we applied to the call opened by our South Marmara Development Agency with the title of Improving the Industrial Infrastructure with our Balıkesir Lamb Meat Safe Food Chain Project and we were awarded a grant. By applying artificial intelligence technology in our project, we plan to continue our efforts to bring quality and fresh meat to our tables from producers to consumers. If fortune, our project will be completed by the end of 2021.

Apart from these developments, we have always prioritized the health of our members, personnel and citizens receiving service from our Exchange during the pandemic process. Our staff continued their services in shifts and flexible working hours. We disinfected our Exchange every day and we measured the temperatures of our guests who came with our thermometer device, questioned and recorded the HES codes. We periodically had blood tests and covid-19 tests performed by our staff and managers. In addition, the workplaces of our members operating on our Exchange site were disinfected by our staff with our disinfection device.

As in 2020, we will continue to serve you in the best way in 2021. I hope that all the negativities of 2020 will be left behind, and I hope 2021 will bring health, peace and prosperity to our city, country and the whole world.

Ersin ERDOĞMUŞ

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD