Remaking the Qualities of Turkish Olive Oil

Abstract

The geography that is now Turkey has produced olives and their oil for millennia, but major changes in the industry have been underway in the last decade, with many producers now focusing on quality over quantity. Based on fieldwork with olive oil producers, harvesters, laboratory technicians, equipment engineers, and others in the industry, this article describes this “quality turn,” what is driving it, who is involved in it, how it unfolds, and what its effects are. Some of the players involved in producing olive oil in Turkey for decades or longer have witnessed important generational changes, including more women entering the sector and technological innovation. Prominent roles are now played by laboratories and tasting competitions, involving the recalibration of human sense perceptions on the part of producers (and, more slowly, consumers) to be commensurate with international standards for defining target aroma profiles in olive oil.