Olive oil: Turkey harvests record crop
January 16, 2025 at 3:07 PM ,
Der AUDITOR
Production up by 150%
More favourable weather conditions in Turkey's olive-growing regions this season meant that yields were better than initially expected. In November, the nationwide olive crop was initially estimated at 3.6 million mt, which would have been a massive increase on the previous year. Experts now estimate that Turkish olive production will total 3.75 million mt in 2024/2025 – an increase of around 150% and a new record for Turkey.
According to Dr Mustafa Tan, Chairman of the National Olive and Olive Oil Council, around 750,000 mt of this result will be marketed as table olives, while the remaining 2.85 million mt could be processed into olive oil. It currently takes 6-7 kg of olives to produce 1 kg of olive oil, which means that around 475,000 mt of olive oil could be produced in Turkey this season. The previous record production was 421,00 mt and was achieved in the 2022/2023 season. The long-term goal is to achieve an average yield of 40 kg of olives per tree, which would increase the olive crop to 8 million mt and enable Turkey to at least catch up with the main oil producer, Spain.
Exports have doubled
With the growing production volume, Tan says it is tempting to adjust domestic production to the more favourable prices in Spain and Italy and thus increase exports. However, the local population should not be ignored and the focus should be on supplying the domestic market with olive oil at affordable prices.
Now that the export restrictions on olive oil imposed during the 2023/2024 season have been lifted, Turkish suppliers were able to increase their exports by 101% year-on-year to 16,086 mt in the first two months of the new 2024/2025 season, with exports totalling USD 86.405 million. According to the Aegean Olive and Olive Oil Exporters' Association (EZZIB), this development was favoured by lower yields in competing growing countries.
Shipments to the USA, by far the most important customer for Turkish olive oil, increased fivefold year-on-year to 7,520 mt, while the export value did not increase to the same extent due to more favourable prices, but still rose by 260% to USD 39.106 million. Other important buyer countries were Italy (+442% to 1,811 mt worth USD 8.13 million) and Spain (1,224 mt worth USD 5.686 million), as well as Saudi Arabia (+157% to 930 mt worth USD 4.597 million). Turkey was also able to significantly increase its shipments to countries such as Canada, Japan and South Korea.
Furthermore, it is important for Turkish exporters to be able to deliver their olive oil to Europe duty-free and without restrictions due to quotas in order to guarantee a steady flow of goods. Due to the regulations in force in the previous season, Turkish olive oil exports fell by 52% to 70,750 mt, although higher sales prices were able to reduce the drop in sales to 29%.
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