Turkey produced 190 tons of olive oil during 2014/2015 season, ranking between the biggest producer countries. The Near Eastern country hasn't yet reached the peak of the expected production, while the expectation for 2015-2016 are high, but it can easily afford to face the internal request of a country where consumption hardly goes beyond 2kg per capita. The price growth surely doesn't helped to increase the number of consumers.
The last one was one of the worst harvest in the history, the olive oil drought and the stock drain caused an unpredictable growth of the price of oil in the global market. Turkey wasn't an exception, as the price of extra-virgin olive oil staying still steady at 17 TL, according to the data from Edremit Ticaret Borsa. With the prices' rise the appetite for speculation increased in the country and starting from last February Turkey has imported around 3.000 ton of olive oil, signately from Tunisia, following the report of Marmarabirlik Chairman during an official meeting at the Ministry of Economy, where they told the situation of the olive and olive oil sector in Turkey.
The last one was one of the worst harvest in the history, the olive oil drought and the stock drain caused an unpredictable growth of the price of oil in the global market. Turkey wasn't an exception, as the price of extra-virgin olive oil staying still steady at 17 TL, according to the data from Edremit Ticaret Borsa. With the prices' rise the appetite for speculation increased in the country and starting from last February Turkey has imported around 3.000 ton of olive oil, signately from Tunisia, following the report of Marmarabirlik Chairman during an official meeting at the Ministry of Economy, where they told the situation of the olive and olive oil sector in Turkey.
Recurring to the import is not strategically congruous with the policy of one of the key players in the sector. Turkey is betting since some years on olive cultivation and has been recently focusing towards new markets, such as India. Turkey has a surface of about 850.000 hectars of olive plantations and is looking after to enhance its potential in the sector not only internally but also abroad. Currently Turkish market share on international markets still remains not significant, according to Kadri Gündeş, chief of Olive and Olive Oil promotion Comitee. Turkey is exporting mainly to Saudi Arabia, USA and Japan but export quote decreased last season.
Another big challenge for Turkish insitutions is the growth internal consumption, promoting the healthy qualities of the golden product to an audience that traditionally is not used to use olive oil, being the Turkish cuisine, especially the so-colled Anatolian, still strongly linked to the ancestral tradition of the use of animal fats in the preparation of the courses.
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| Meze, a classic of Aegean cuisine |
The rise of olive oil import could be considered as a speculative move made by traders in this special conditions. Politicians should be hard in discouraging this behaviour and to stregthen the rules to enforce the local production. Turkey has the ambitious goal to reach 650.000 tons of olive oil production in 2023, the year of 100 year after the foundation of the Turkish Republic and to confirm the motto of the hero who founded it, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who affirmed: "The economy of the nation is based on the agriculture."
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