by Burak Akinci

ANKARA, Dec. 5 (Xinhua) -- Türkiye is likely to set a new record for olive oil output in the 2024/25 crop year, business insiders in the country said.

"We are expecting a total production of ... 475,000 tons of olive oil for the 2024-2025 season," Mustafa Tan, head of the Turkish National Olive and Olive Oil Council (UZZK), told Xinhua recently.

Tan explained that Türkiye's olive production sector has evolved its approach to better predict yields, introducing more field studies and coordinating with the Turkish Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry.

According to a report on Nov. 7 by U.S.-based independent industry publication Olive Oil Times, the anticipated figure surpasses the record of 421,000 tons set in the 2022/23 crop year, which placed Türkiye second in the world after Spain.

In the 2023/24 crop year, a down year in the olive production cycle, Türkiye experienced reduced yields across the Mediterranean basin, with an overall production of about 200,000 tons, Britain-based newspaper publisher Arabian Gulf Business Insight said in a report on Nov. 21.

Echoing with the anticipated national olive oil output, Ayvalik, a prominent olive oil-producing area in Balikesir Province on Türkiye's northwestern Aegean coast, has been expected with a 65-percent increase in olive production year-on-year in 2024.

In September, provincial industrial insiders predicted that Ayvalik will see a harvest of 400,000 tons of olive oil this year, up from 200,000 tons last year, Turkish local news website Son Dakika reported on Sept. 8.

Türkiye is one of the largest producers of olive oil in the world. According to UZZK figures, the country has more than 200 million olive trees planted, doubling the number a few decades ago.

The anticipated output record for the 2024/25 crop year has fueled Turkish business insiders' ambitions for more olive oil exports.

"Türkiye aims to increase its annual export value of olive oil from nearly one billion U.S. dollars annually to 1.5 billion dollars in five years," Umut Yardim, an export specialist from the western city of Izmir, told Xinhua.

Higher production levels in 2024 could further enhance Türkiye's export competitiveness, offering an opportunity to capture a larger share of the global market, Yardim said.

Still, Yardim cautioned against price fluctuations and other challenges awaiting the Turkish olive industry despite a positive outlook. "Global olive oil prices are volatile, influenced by supply levels in other major producing countries," he noted.

With the expected new record, experts believed that the high olive oil prices, which have burdened Turkish consumers amid inflation, are likely to fall.

"Olive oil prices were very high for average consumers in the past two years. We expect them to decrease shortly," Ali Ekber Yildirim, a journalist and author specializing in agricultural issues, said in a recent video blog. Enditem

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