Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Ibrahim Yumakli said, “Our olive oil consumption is around 160-180 thousand tons. With the products carried over from last year and this year’s harvest, there will be no problem with olive oil. Turkiye has enough olive oil for itself.”
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Ibrahim Yumakli stated the following in his statements to TRT Haber regarding Turkiye’s olive and olive oil production;
Last year, a record in the history of the Republic was broken and enough olives were harvested to produce 440 thousand tons of olive oil. This year, we are in a year in which fewer products are purchased, which is considered a year of absence. Enough olives were harvested to produce approximately 180 thousand tons of olive oil. In some Mediterranean countries, half of this production was made. We are in a difficult year in terms of olive production in the world. But there is no problem for our country. Our olive oil consumption is around 160-180 thousand tons. With the products carried over from last year and this year’s harvest, there will be no problems with olive oil. Turkiye has enough olive oil for itself. There is even more.
“There is no problem with product supply”
Supply issues regarding olive oil prices were not included in the agenda. It started with a manufacturer announcing the price of a product that was never in circulation and that they did not even buy a liter of. This product was perceived as a base price. When those who were a little inclined to use it fueled this, it suddenly became a hot topic in Turkiye, as if the price had almost doubled in two weeks. We said this was not true. First of all, there is no problem with product supply. Secondly, this institution later corrected its own statement. The National Olive Council also stated that there was no problem with the harvest. This is the answer to the question of why it came to the fore in this way.
“We restricted the export of bulk olive oil abroad”
There was also a problem with export. More precisely, when there were problems with olives and olive oil production in different countries, these products were withdrawn from our country in large quantities. We noticed this move and restricted the export of bulk olive oil abroad. Together with our Ministry of Commerce. The reason for this was to prevent domestic prices from increasing abnormally. Moreover, the industry has adapted to this and currently the shipment of bulk products other than bottled products is limited.
Export of bottled products is out of the question. Turkiye’s olive oil production this year is sufficient for its own consumption. Moreover, we had a certain stock from last year. Therefore, there is no problem with the product being on the market. We restricted bulk exports in order to prevent the high volumes of export-related outflows from disrupting the domestic production-consumption balance.
Source: Trthaber / Prepared by Irem Yildiz