Domat olive: characteristics, oil content and growing areas

In Türkiye, "stuffed green olive" means one variety: Domat. If an olive is large enough to hold a piece of pepper or an almond, it is almost certainly Domat — no other Turkish variety reaches that size.

Centred on Akhisar, it is the backbone of the green side of the table-olive trade. Its oil content is low, and it is not grown for oil anyway.

Domat in numbers

Source: Efe, Soykan, Cürebal and Sönmez (2016), Zeytin Kitabı. Fields the source leaves blank are shown as "—"; nothing has been estimated.

When does it flower and ripen?

Source: Olive Integrated Pest Management Technical Instruction, TAGEM. Dates shift with region and year; flowering is later at higher altitude.

Why stuffed olives are always Domat

Domat is Türkiye's largest-fruited table variety. In a trial under Tarsus conditions, open-pollinated Domat fruit averaged 5.51 g, 18.96 mm wide and 26.18 mm long. In the same trial Gemlik came in around 3.73 g and Sarı Ulak 3.77 g.

The practical consequence: Domat is the only Turkish variety large enough to be pitted and stuffed with pepper, almond or lemon. It is picked at green maturity, debittered with lye and processed stuffed.

The pollinator can shrink the fruit

The most striking finding of that Tarsus trial concerns pollination:

The wrong pollinator can cut Domat's fruit size by more than a third — and in a variety sold on size, that is money. The largest fruit always came from open pollination; leaving a mix of varieties in the grove beats relying on a single pollinator here.

Alternate bearing: Domat's weak point

In the same trial, when 2018 turned out to be an "off" year, Gemlik and Sarı Ulak still cropped while Domat produced nothing at all. Domat's alternate bearing is harsher than the other two. For anyone planning table-olive supply, that alone argues against relying on one variety.

Domat is classed as partially self-fertile — it will crop without a pollinator, but needs one for a full crop.

In short

Domat is Türkiye's large-fruited green table variety and the only domestic source of stuffed olives. It carries two costs: harsh alternate bearing (it can crop nothing at all in an off year) and pollinator sensitivity (the wrong pollinator cuts fruit size by a third). Ignore either when planting, and you lose the size.