Olive production hits record 2.9 million tons
BALIKESİR
Türkiye’s olive production has hit an all-time-high of 2.94 million tons, according to Mustafa Tan, head of the National Olive and Olive Oil Council (UZZK).
“We have met the targets which we set 15 years ago. The number of total olive trees have reached 196 million which produced 2.9 million tons of olive,” he added, unveiling the crop estimates for 2022 and 2023.
Around 28 million of those trees are yet to yield crops, he noted.
Some 735,000 tons of table olives have been produced, Tan said. “This is a world record [in table olives output].”
Table olives outputs of two other major producers, Spain and Egypt are around 650,000 tons and 500,000 tons, respectively, according to Tan.
Türkiye also met its target, which was set 15 years ago, of becoming the world’s second largest producer of olive oil, he added.
“Studies carried out by experts in the country’s four regions between Sept. 8 and 18 for crop estimate concluded that olive oil production will reach 421,000 tons in the 2022-2023 season, which marks the highest figure ever.”
With this output, Türkiye claimed the second spot in the world in olive oil production.
Türkiye has the potential to boost both production and exports significantly, Tan added.
He noted that Spain’s olive oil production declined from 1.5 million tons to 750,000 tons, Italy’s output fell to 300,000 tons and Greece’s dropped to 300,000 tons. “Türkiye reached its target of becoming the second largest producer after Spain. But this may also raise some storage problems. We need some support. Exports should keep continuing so that we are not left with the products at warehouses,” Tan said.
He also stressed the high costs. “Production of a kilogram of olive costs between 60 to 100 Turkish Liras ($5.40). It costs around 5 to 5.5 euros in Spain and there are estimates suggesting that it may go up to 10 euros in Italy, where production fell 50 percent due to drought, Tan said.
