World grain olive production is 21 million tons on an area of 9.8 million hectares as of 2018, and Spain is the country with the highest production area, followed by Tunisia, Italy and Morocco. Turkey ranks 6th after Greece. As of 2018, 21 million tons of olives are produced in approximately 40 countries in the world that show Mediterranean Basin climate characteristics. The country with the highest production is Spain. Turkey, on the other hand, ranks 4th after Italy and Morocco. Since olives cannot be consumed raw, they are processed. For this reason, the grain olive production amounts of the producing countries vary as processed for oil and table. With the rapid increase in olive plantations in our country and the full production of the orchards established in the last 10 years, a significant increase is expected in the olive production of our country in the near future.
Olive growing in Turkey has been one of the important agricultural activities after the establishment of both the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic. The new perspectives brought by the changing order in the world to agricultural production have an impact on agriculture, food, and therefore olive and olive oil policies in Turkey. Olive production is one of the most important activities of the agricultural sector in Turkey. A large amount of olive produced in Turkey is directed to domestic consumption. 85% of table olives produced in Turkey are processed as black, 15% as green and colored. Turkey exports 89 thousand tons of table olive production annually mainly to Romania, Bulgaria, Russia and Germany. Considering all these aspects, olive, which has an important place in human nutrition, has an important place in the country's economy in terms of being a source of income for many producers and being an industrial raw material. As of 2019, olive production in our country is 1.5 million tons. Table olive exports amounted to 89 thousand tons as of 2019, with a revenue of 141 million dollars. The customs duty rate applied on imports is 39%.
Although the olive oil production in Turkey changes according to the years, it was 225 thousand tons in the 2019-2020 season. Oil yield reached a high rate of 20%. In other years, the yield ranged between 14 and 18%.