The Ministry of Trade is preparing to introduce new standards for supermarket chain shelves to support local producers. Supermarket chains will be required to allocate 1% of their shelf space to products produced by cooperatives where the majority of partners are women or by women's cooperatives.
Additionally, to reduce the dominance of imported products in supermarket chains, shelf limits will be applied to imported toys, shoes, ready-to-wear clothing, and stationery. At least 20% of shelves will be allocated to local producers. The Ministry of Trade has opened its draft regulation, which envisages changes in retail trade, for consultation. Under the draft, local producers will be supported both in supermarket chains and at shopping festivals.
Positive Discrimination for Women
The draft aims to support domestic production, increase the visibility of regional products, and encourage women's entrepreneurship. In this context, large stores and supermarket chains will be required to allocate at least 1% of their sales area as shelf space to products where the majority of partners are women or produced by women's cooperatives.
Shelf space that cannot be filled due to the absence of regionally produced women's products or if these products do not meet the quality standards specified in contracts can be used for the sale of other products.
Limit on Imported Products
Provisions have also been introduced in the draft for allocating minimum shelf space for products produced domestically.
Accordingly, to reduce the dominance of imported products in supermarket chains, shelf limits will be applied to imported toys, shoes, ready-to-wear clothing, and stationery. At least 20% of shelves will be allocated to local producers.
The Ministry has also been authorized to impose an obligation on chain stores with more than 200 branches to sell food products for diseases requiring medical nutrition therapy in branches with a sales area exceeding 250 square meters.
Local Store Requirement for Textile Festivals
Due to the increasingly visible effects of shopping festivals on local trade in recent times, the procedures and principles regarding shopping festivals have been reorganized. In this direction, the concept of a shopping festival has been defined for the first time, while the principles for application, evaluation, and inspection processes for festival organizations have been determined.
Accordingly, a local store requirement is coming for shopping festivals held in the textile sector. At least 20% of the stand areas at festivals will be allocated to local stores.
Regulation for Mass Bread Bakeries
In the draft, bakeries with a daily capacity of at least 10,000 units have been defined as 'mass bread production bakeries'.
It has been determined that payments made by supermarket chains or suppliers to bakeries, especially those using automated systems for production, are delayed. To prevent this situation from disrupting bread production, a condition has been introduced requiring that payments be made to bakeries within the invoice period, amounting to no less than 80% of their receivables.
