Oilseeds are one of the most valuable crops in Turkey's agriculture and economy as they are the most important source of vegetable oil, feed for livestock and, as of recently, biodiesel feedstock. At the present time, Turkey cannot even meet its own demand for oilseeds, and this problem stems mainly from a lack of planning in the production phase. At present, more than half of the country's need for oil is s met by imports and the import value of crude vegetable oil and oilseed crops is the second largest figure in the country's total exchange expenditures, trailing only petroleum products. In the last two decades, although the total oilseeds production has increased nearly 20%, the area planted to oilseeds has gone down by 12%. Among oilseeds, soybean has been hit the hardest, as the area planted to the crop and its production decreased by 80% and 68%, respectively. In the Black Sea region, including the Samsun and Ordu provinces, which used to be the country's largest soybean producer, soybean areas and production have also decreased drastically. The soybean acreage and production in the Samsun province have dropped by 60% and 18%, respectively. Worse still, in the Ordu province, where the country's first soybean oil factory was set up in 1965, soybean is not grown anymore. Farmers in the two provinces have started gravitating mostly towards hazelnut production, resulting in a nine-fold and two-fold increase in the Samsun and Ordu provinces, respectively. Sunflower, the major oilseed crop of Turkey, currently provides approximately 50% of the country's total oilseed supply. Over the years, sunflower production in Turkey has followed an ever-fluctuating course. The situation is even worse in the Central Black Sea region including Samsun, Çorum and Amasya provinces, where sunflower area have decreased by 54%, 53% and 72%, respectively. On the other hand, the self-sufficiency ratio in sunflower consumption has decreased from 70% in 2000 to 38% in 2007. The excessive decrease in the self-sufficiency ratio should be regarded as an alarm bell for sunflower and must be taken seriously without delay if the country does not want to play out the same tragic scenario as in the case of soybean. It should always be kept in mind that strategic planning for the future in most cases depends on past history.