Kilis Olive Oil: a cultivar reaching 33% oil

Oil content in most olive cultivars runs 18-26%. The Kilis Yağlık cultivar reaches about 33% — few cultivars in Türkiye go that high.

The record

Why so oily

The certificate describes the cultivar: the fruit is generally small and round, with thin skin, a small stone, and an oil content of about 33%.

The four properties are connected. A small stone and thin skin mean a greater share of the fruit's weight is flesh — and flesh is what carries the oil. Small fruit is generally the mark of an oil cultivar: table use wants size, oil use wants oil.

⚠ There is a cost: the cultivar shows strong alternate bearing — heavy one year, light the next. We covered this in the life cycle of an olive tree.

The tree is of medium vigour, forming a medium-sized, spreading and drooping crown. It is not sensitive to cold — which matters for the hard winters of the south-east.

Composition of the oil

A peroxide value of 5.62 is very low against the legal ceiling of 20 for extra virgin. The certificate gives the reason: care is taken not to damage the fruit at harvest, and it goes to the mill without delay.

In short

Kilis Olive Oil is the registration of a native cultivar with exceptionally high oil content. Small fruit, thin skin and a small stone push the yield up; the cost is strong alternate bearing.

Source: Turkish Patent and Trademark Office, Geographical Indication Registration Certificate No 1021 — Kilis Zeytinyağı.