With food inflation running at over 30 per cent, Turkey’s centuries-old relationship with olive oil is starting to sour.
Nimet Kirac
Across 130 acres near the city of Adana in southern Turkey, olives are emerging on some 3,700 trees cultivated by Yusuf Kenan Eren and his wife, Gulbin, for the past two decades.
The Eastern Mediterranean, where Adana is located, is an ideal place to grow olives, the fruit central to Anatolian culture for over 6,000 years.
From ancient Troy and Ephesus to Ottoman kitchens, lighting and medicine, olive oil has long symbolised health and prosperity. Now, however, the Erens say they barely break even.
Extra virgin olive oil bearing Yusuf’s name collected a Gold Award at the Afro-Asian International Olive Oil Competition in 2025, but, according to Gulbin, “we’re not making money” after factoring in the cost of labour, transportation, electricity for pressing and cooling, fertiliser and packaging, all of which are on the rise mainly due to the weakness of the Turkish lira against the US dollar.
