Olive & Olive Oil in Turkey - Why Turkey Is Not the First in the World?

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The lack of the maintenance, developing and restructuring of plantations, notably, the old one.

The weak efforts for quality preservation, especially weak markets prospecting. Top olive oil brands are Spanish and non-Turkish.

Opportunities

Growth of the European olive oil import demand

The import demand in emerging markets rising.

Being a net exporter of olive oil, Turkey supplies the variety of olive oil to a wide range of countries including major producer countries that either consumes or re-export Turkish olive oil.

Turkey’s Table Olive Exports[pic 2]

Threats

Strong brand loyalty

Tariffs applied to the European olive oil imports coming from Turkey.

Government policies

Reasons why olive oil is important for Turkish Economy

Globally, consumption of olive oil is rising and today Turkey exports olive oil to more than 100 countries

World olive oil consumption (1,000 tonnes)[pic 3]

World olive oil production (1,000 tonnes)[pic 4]

The fall in the year of 2014 in export is due to country’s olive oil producers are holding on to their stocks with expectations that prices will rise following the poor harvests in Italy and Spain due to bad weather and pest infestations, and hopes they will be able to cash in on high international demand for olive oil.

World Olive Oil Export, Trade Value (US$)

[pic 5]

World Olive Oil Export, Netweight (kg)

[pic 6]

Why Turkey is not the first in olive oil production

Our main question in that will be addressed throughout the project is why Turkey is not the first producer in olive oil production in the world. Turkey has been developing its olive oil production over the years but it is still not ranked as the first producer in the world. The sector is very promisingly in Turkey due to high domestic demand and its high population.

Olive oil production grows mostly in warm temperature and it cannot endure in very critical weather conditions. Turkey being one among of the Mediterranean countries with its long coastline makes it possible for the increase in the production of olive oil which results to the increase of the importance of Olive oil sector in Turkey. Turkey produces varieties of olives such as table olives (both black and green olives) and olive oil. Olive oil is very promisingly sector in Turkey because of its nutritional benefits such as health benefits in pharmaceutical sector, cosmetics sector and domestic purposes. The reasons to why Turkey is not the first producer of olive oil production is as follows;

Poor branding: poor branding of the Olive Oil sector in Turkey makes it challengingly for the country to become the first largest producer, on the other hand Spain as the first producer and competitor of Turkey is doing remarkably well in branding olive oil which leads to having higher market shares than any other countries. Low marketing and branding of olive oil results to low market share in Turkey comparing to other competitors.

Low government support: support from the government such as investment in Research and Development of finding new market areas inside and outside Turkey is very low and this results to the decrease of exports because the country exports few countries comparing to Italy and Spain where they find new markets and increase their exports worldwide.

High competition: comparing Turkey’s olive oil production with other olive oil producing countries such as Spain and Italy, the performance of Turkey is low and the competition in the market is really high, therefore Turkey should largely invest in Olive oil sector to beat the market and the other producers. Turkey should implement different measures to capture and monopolize the market.

Weather conditions: The variation in weather conditions throughout the year in Turkey, may lead difficulties for the growth of olives plant, since olives plant grows sufficiently in warm temperatures and not cold temperatures. This reduces the production of olive oil production in the country and hence Turkey’s Olive oil sector performances in the market decrease.

There are different measures to be taken for Turkey to be the first producer and beat the market. The measures can be explained as follows;

Improvement in Branding: Spain beat the market as being the first largest producer of Olive oil production in the world through implementing great branding, Turkey should improves its Marketing so as to target new markets and to improve the situation in the market. This can be done through Advertising the sector in different countries and find new ways to branding its product both business to business and business to customers so as to improve the relationship in the market.

Investment opportunities: The government should invest largely on Agriculture sector mainly is olive oil sector to develop the sector and this will results to the increase of the market share in the market. Turkey produces 200,000 tons of olive oil per year and it is expected to reach 600,000 tons over the next 3 years. Currently Turkey is concentrating on china export market for olive oil which is a remarkable way to increase its export and finding new emerging markets.

Solutions and Recommendations

So far Turkey has been trying various strategies and methods in order to achieve their planning goals. A lot of organizations have been established to help to solve problems for Turkish producers. Basically most of them working to find a balance between productions and pricing.

There was always an advantage of being rich geographically for agriculture, particularly olive, and olive oils. Not surprisingly it obtains different types of climate and turns up to produce unique aroma and different kinds of olives. Aegean and West Anatolia regions considered to be the best climates for cultivating olive trees, thus Government should control the whole process of harvesting and producing. Educating the quality of