Local Variations of Agri-food Geographies: Regional Linkages of Konya Flour Manufacturers Along the Wheat Commodity Chains

Abstract

Agri-food geography proved itself to be a useful sub-discipline in spatializing the issues around agriculture and food. While its theoretical depth and concepts it developed and themes it chose through interdisciplinary efforts provided plentiful sets of approaches, the focus has been on particular agrifood commodities, territories and sectors. Nevertheless, it is necessary to call for such academic efforts towards undiscovered territories like Turkey, towards neglected objects of analysis such as staple foods like wheat and wheat flour, and towards relatively desolate sections of food journeys like food processing, in this case flour manufacturing. In this vein, this article first summarizes the relevant themes and concepts of the literature. Then, relying on the major arguments on conventional agri-food geographies and the unique position of Turkey in wheat commodity chains, this study examines the forward linkages of the flour manufacturing industry in Konya, the prominent industrial city of Central Anatolian Turkey. In this paper, flour manufacturers' positioning and spatial arrangements within the wheat commodity chain are illustrated on three scales and via three group of actors: channels they bridge through grain trade in global scale, retail chains in national scale, and patisseries and bakeries in regional scale. Millers' incorporation with or exclusion from these spatial arrangements reveal the uneven spatial patterns emerged in relation with their linkages along the commodity chain. Improving our understanding of the mechanisms of production and circulation of different agrifood commodities would provide new terrains for spatial researchers and policy makers in urban and regional food planning.