Olive growing in Muğla

The centre of olive growing in Muğla is Milas, with cultivation also around Köyceğiz and Ula. Milas and its surroundings form one of the densest olive areas in the Aegean.

The district's trees were once entirely Memecik. Recent plantings have used Gemlik, whose numbers locally now exceed one million — an example of how fast the varietal fabric of a single district can change.

The province holds two geographical indications: Milas Olive Oil (2016) and Milas Yağlı Olive (2019).

Muğla is the only one of the six provinces where tree numbers fell: from 15.7 to 14.8 million, a 5.3% decline. That it contracted while every other province grew is notable.

In return its extraction rate of 5.1 is the best of the six — Muğla spends the fewest kilos of fruit per kilo of oil, a reflection of Memecik's oil content and the district's processing tradition.

The province is decisively oil-oriented: only 7% of the crop goes to table use. The swing in its series is severe — from 22,110 t to 392,104 t, more than seventeenfold, the sharpest alternate bearing among the six.