Harvest opens in Mut: 300,000 tonnes expected, orchard prices start at 10 lira

Turkey's table-olive harvest has opened in what is, by a wide margin, the country's largest single-district olive area. The first picking has been done in Mut, a district of Mersin province, and orchard-gate prices came in between 10 and 60 lira per kilo depending on sieve size.

The expectation

According to information relayed from officials at the Mut District Directorate of Agriculture and Forestry, the district holds 13 million registered olive trees across 269,000 decares (26,900 hectares), and this year's yield is high: 300,000 tonnes of fruit is expected.

A sixfold price range is not as strange as it looks. In table olives the price is set by sieve size — the calibre of the individual fruit. The fewer olives it takes to make a kilo, the higher the price. So 10 lira and 60 lira are not two ends of one market but the prices of two different markets: small fruit largely goes to oil or to paste, while large calibres go directly into shelf-ready table products.

What growers say

Hasan Tepe, who both grows and sells, confirmed that the yield is high but said prices are low compared with last year, adding: "What we wanted was different — our farmers were expecting better, and it did not happen." Another grower, İbrahim Arı, said the season had opened in Mut, that prices run from 10 lira up to 60 lira according to sieve size, and that the yield is high.

That pairing — plenty of fruit, weak prices — looks like the defining shape of this season. In the same week Andalusia published a crop forecast up 23.9%, and growers there were unhappy about prices too. Supply growth pushing prices down is expected behaviour. The problem is that costs do not fall at the same speed, so a bigger harvest does not reach the grower's pocket in the same proportion. Labour, fuel and packaging are priced in this year's lira, not last year's.

We checked the figure against our own data, and it does not close

This needs stating plainly. The Mersin data on this site comes from UZZK's official assessment report for the 2025-26 season, and it is at province level, not district:

Put the two side by side and this is what comes out: the district of Mut alone reports 13 million trees, while the whole of Mersin province holds 14.1 million including non-bearing stock. The district would therefore account for almost the entire province, as though the olive groves of Silifke and Tarsus were not there. The same tension appears in tonnage: the district expects 300,000 tonnes, while the province's total last season was 224,537.

⚠ This is not a gotcha, it is a difference in measurement base, and we cannot resolve it. The phrase "registered trees" may refer to declarations in the Farmer Registration System, whereas what UZZK counts in its pre-harvest assessment is bearing trees. The two counts are not measuring the same thing. Because the source does not state which definition applies, we pass the figure on without correcting it.

One cross-check does hold up. Divide 300,000 tonnes by 13 million trees and you get 23 kg per tree. The national average UZZK gave for 2024-25 was 21 kg, and Mersin's 2025-26 average was 19.5 kg. So the implied per-tree yield is entirely plausible for an on-year. The inconsistency is not in the yield assumption; it is in the scope of the tree count.

Why Mut is worth watching

Mut is the largest centre where Turkish olive growing moves outside the Aegean. The district's olive oil carries a geographical indication, and we have separately examined its processing structure in a field study. It is also no accident that the national harvest calendar opens in Mut: in the hot inland Mediterranean, ripening completes earlier than in the Aegean. That makes the Mut price the first reference point of the season, and buyers elsewhere watch it for exactly that reason.

⚠ The orchard-gate price is not the shelf price. The 10–60 lira band is what leaves the grower's hands; brining, processing, packaging and distribution are added on top.

⚠ The 300,000 tonnes here is an expectation, not realised production. Harvest closes in November and December, and the national figure only becomes firm when the UZZK report is published.