Olive oil exporters enjoy good season start

BALIKESİR - Anatolia News Agency

Turkish olive oil exporters, benefiting from a harvest fall in Tunisia and Spain, increased their sales 139 percent in the last two months of last year from the same period a year earlier, according to data provided by the Aegean Olive and Olive Oil Exporters Union.

The period refers to the first two months of Turkey’s olive oil season.

The country’s oil exports had already risen 65 percent to 20,000 tons in the previous season which ended on Oct. 31, 2012, generating $65 million in revenues with a 33 percent increase.

Turkey sold 7,373 tons of olive oil in the first two months of this season, reaching a volume of $23.1 million.

Exports to Austria and Bahrain increased 24 and 25 fold respectively.

Ali Nedim Güreli, head of the association, said the fall in harvest in Tunisia, a competitor country, and Spain, one of the world leaders, played a role in the jump in Turkish olive oil exports.

“I have been an exporter for 35 years and it was only this season that I sold oil to Peru,” he said. Exports helped keep domestic prices higher, he added.