Turkish Olive Farmers Struggle Despite Expected Record Harvest

Notwithstanding expec­ta­tions of a record har­vest, some farm­ers in Turkey are strug­gling under the strain of low olive prices, high pro­duc­tion costs and uncer­tain gov­ern­ment pol­icy.

In its ini­tial 2024/25 crop year esti­mates pub­lished in January, the International Olive Council fore­casted that Turkey would pro­duce 450,000 met­ric tons, exceed­ing the pre­vi­ous record of 421,000 tons in 2022/23 but below the Turkish Olive and Olive Oil Council’s (UZZK) pre­lim­i­nary esti­mate of 475,000 tons.

Saim Demirbaş, pres­i­dent of the Foça Agricultural Chamber, told local media that olive har­vest­ing is nearly fin­ished, but olive prices have not risen com­pa­ra­bly to costs.

“Oil mills are pur­chas­ing olives at a price range of 130 to 150 lira (€3.40 to €3.95) [per kilo­gram],” he said, down from the 295 lira (€9) in the pre­vi­ous crop year.

Data from online olive oil trad­ing mar­ket­place Oleista show prices at ori­gin for lam­pante, vir­gin and extra vir­gin olive oil ticked up in the sec­ond week of February to €4.53, €5.15 and €6.20 per kilo­gram, respec­tively.

However, farm­ers said these had not off­set increas­ing energy, fer­til­izer and pes­ti­cide prices and ris­ing labor costs.

“This year, olive pro­duc­ers are expe­ri­enc­ing sig­nif­i­cant hard­ship,” Demirbaş con­firmed. ​“Costs have increased by 50 per­cent between last year and this year.”

“Agricultural labor is becom­ing less attrac­tive as a pro­fes­sion due to eco­nomic con­di­tions,” he added. ​“Excessive increases in labor wages have sig­nif­i­cantly raised har­vest­ing costs.”

Demirbaş cal­cu­lated that it costs olive farm­ers about 180 lira (€4.75) to har­vest the aver­age six kilo­grams of olives needed to pro­duce one liter of olive oil.

“If olive oil prices do not exceed 180 lira, pro­duc­ers can’t cover their basic expenses,” he said.

Producers, bot­tlers and exporters are also wary of how chang­ing gov­ern­ment pol­icy might affect their abil­ity to ship their prod­uct abroad.

An export ban imposed by the gov­ern­ment in July 2023, aimed at sta­bi­liz­ing domes­tic prices and encour­ag­ing the export of indi­vid­u­ally pack­aged olive oil, has resulted in sig­nif­i­cant olive oil stocks.

Although the ban was lifted in October 2024, pro­duc­ers worry that some extra vir­gin olive oil may have degraded to a lower qual­ity grade and will, there­fore, be less valu­able on the export mar­ket.

Others are con­cerned that gov­ern­ment pol­icy will change quickly, mak­ing long-term plan­ning more chal­leng­ing. The gov­ern­ment has pro­hib­ited bulk olive oil exports three times since 2021, with the pro­hi­bi­tions last­ing any­where from six to 14 months.

Halit Uşak, an olive farmer in busi­ness for 30 years, told local media the com­bi­na­tion of lower prices for olives with higher labor and pro­duc­tion input costs has made the busi­ness unsus­tain­able.

“The olives col­lected do not even cover the cost of the worker [wages],” he said. ​“The state must inter­vene in this sit­u­a­tion as soon as pos­si­ble and sup­port the pro­duc­ers.”

Ömer Ulaş Kırım, pres­i­dent of the Turkish Chamber of Food Engineers in Izmir, called on the gov­ern­ment to con­sider olive oil pro­duc­tion and exports as strate­gic sec­tors for the coun­try and pro­vide the nec­es­sary sup­port to help them suc­ceed.

“Supporting pro­duc­ers and focus­ing on brand­ing efforts dur­ing this process is of crit­i­cal impor­tance for the future of the sec­tor,” he said. ​“This cri­sis can become an oppor­tu­nity to strengthen the olive oil sec­tor. However, for this, the voices of pro­duc­ers should be heard more strongly, and sus­tain­able strate­gies should be devel­oped in the long term.”

• Açik Gazete