Turkey imports olive oil amid high prices

Jale Özgentürk ISTANBUL

AFP Photo.

The production price of Turkish olive oil has reached 12 Turkish Liras ($5) per kilogram, but there remains a shortage in the sector. Industrialists who cannot find enough olive and olive oil products in the domestic market plan to import product, with Turkey’s Komili being the first to import olive oil from abroad, while many industrialists are planning to follow suit, importing products mainly from Tunisia. 

“As there are no state policies to regulate the market, Turkey faces steep ups and downs in prices when anything wrong happens in the world, including a draught or bad weather conditions,” said Cahit Çetin, head of Tariş Olive and Olive Oil Association, a cooperative organization with more than 28,000 producers in Turkey.

Turkey needs to adopt a series of good marketing strategies to introduce its olive and olive oil products while supporting producers in order to maintain the sector, he added.  

Mixed reasons push down prices

Due to a decrease in yields, stemming mainly from poor weather conditions in Spain and Italy, the global olive oil sector has been suffering from fluctuating prices since the beginning of the season. 

In addition to the poor weather conditions, the lack of olive oil from Syria due to the conflict in the county is another factor pushing prices up. The price of buying a kilo of virgin olive oil from a producer is over 12 liras, but the producers do not want to supply products to industrialists, as they expect the price to increase further. 

As a result, many industrialists are planning to import olive and olive oil products from abroad, mainly from Tunisia. Turkey’s Komili was the first this year to take such a step.