Marmarabirlik purchase prices: what the grower actually receives in Marmara

In Marmara the price of table olives is set in practice not by an exchange but by a cooperative union: Marmarabirlik. Because no registered exchange price is published in the region, the most concrete indicator of what the grower actually receives is the purchase price this union announces each season.

2025/2026 purchase prices

The Marmara Olive Agricultural Sales Cooperatives Union announced its final prices for the 2025/2026 campaign as follows:

Prices are per kilogram. The calibre figure is the number of fruits in one kilo; the lower the number, the larger the olive and the higher the price.

The union received 67,000 crop declarations this season and set its prices on that basis.

What the numbers say: size changes price almost threefold

There is a 2.9× gap between the two ends of the table: 160 lira for 18-calibre, 55 lira for 41-calibre. Olives from the same tree, picked the same day, are priced this differently on size alone.

The reason is that the table market runs on calibre: large fruit is worth more to the consumer and suits value-added products such as stuffing and premium packaging. Small fruit goes to paste and to oil.

For how calibre drives price in detail: The economics of calibre — how fruit size changes the price

The gap between oil and table

On the same list, olives for oil fetch 53 lira. So there is almost no difference between the smallest table calibre (41, at 55 ₺) and oil fruit — while large table fruit is worth three times as much.

That alone explains why Marmara growers lean toward the table: more than 80% of the region's crop is processed as black table olives, most of it Gemlik.

Buying down to calibre 41

One detail in the chairman's statement shows the cooperative's role in the market: while the open market buys nothing above calibre 28, Marmarabirlik buys down to calibre 41.

In other words, the cooperative takes small fruit the free market will not. For the grower that means a return on produce that would otherwise be unsellable; for the union it means acting as a price floor.

Payment schedule

Splitting payment in two is standard cooperative practice: the union pays a price differential as it sells the crop and sees the revenue. In the same season the union went on to announce second and third instalments.

This means the announced figure is not the final income: the grower's total can end up higher once the differentials are paid at the end of the season.

Why is there no exchange price?

Olive prices in Türkiye are published on the national commodity exchange portal, but no exchange in Marmara reports olive registrations — all four exchanges publishing there are in the Aegean and the southeast.

The region's closest record is the Gemlik Commodity Exchange's monthly bulletins for 2019–2022, and that publication has stopped too. You can see that history here: Marmara olive price history (2019–2022)

So today the only regular, official answer to the price question in Marmara is Marmarabirlik's seasonal announcement.

In short

• 2025/2026 season: table olives 160 ₺ (calibre 18) to 55 ₺ (calibre 41); oil fruit 53 ₺.
• Size alone changes the price 2.9×.
• The cooperative buys down to calibre 41; the market stops at 28.
• Payment is 50% up front plus a differential; the announced figure is not the final income.

Source: Marmarabirlik official announcement, 2025/2026 purchasing campaign. Prices are set anew each season; check the union's own site for the current announcement.