Olive harvest has begun in Akhisar district of Manisa province which is one of the most important table olive and olive oil production centres across Turkey.
Producers who collect their olives especially with traditional methods along with machines as well are troubled by the dry season.
Subsidy to continue on grain olives…
Manisa Provincial Director of Agriculture and Forestry Metin Öztürk also wished the season to be beneficial. Öztürk said that although the dry season caused wrinkles in olives, they did not expect the yield to be lower than last year.
Öztürk said, “Harvest of Domat olive variety has begun in our province. Manisa is the capital city of olives. We have olive trees over 22 million. We are the first region in table olive production across Turkey. Although it varies year by year we rank in the first five provinces in terms oily olive production.”
“We observe wrinkling in the olives due to the dry summer season and the lack of rain these days when we enter the autumn season. However, we believe that this problem will be partially resolved with the onset of rainfall. Olive oil has had a subsidy for many years. In addition to this, an important issue for our region that has been the first in table olives for many years is to give a subsidy to the grain olive,” Öztürk added.
“Last year, our Minister of Agriculture for the first time announced the subsidy to grain olive as 15 kurush (kuruş) per kilogram. This was an important phase for us, for our region which is an important centre in table olives. From now on, we will continue to give table olive subsidy to our farmers,” Öztürk concluded…