In Söke, one day's wage costs ten kilos of olive oil
Over 1,000 tonnes of table olives are expected in Söke's Ağaçlı. Two figures given by the headman sum up the season: oil at 160 lira wholesale, a day's wage at 1,600.
Over 1,000 tonnes of table olives are expected this season in the Ağaçlı neighbourhood of Söke, Aydın. The headman, Serkan Tarakçı, says rain in March, April and May raised quality, the fruit is large, and no worm or similar disease has appeared.
Ağaçlı is counted among Söke's top three neighbourhoods for table olive production.
Two figures that sum up the season
Two numbers given by Tarakçı describe the harvest economy in a sentence:
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Wholesale olive oil purchase price | TRY 160/kg |
| Daily wage | TRY 1,600/day |
| Oil equivalent of one day's wage | 10 kg |
In his own words: "The grower will hand over ten kilos of olive oil a day as one worker's wage."
That ratio takes the cost debate out of the abstract. Whatever a worker can pick in a day must yield more than ten kilos of oil for the work to pay for itself. We ran that calculation item by item in what does a kilo of olives cost to produce.
Why being table-olive country helps
Tarakçı says olives not of table quality are sent to the mills for oil, and adds that because table olives come first here, they expect to close the season with fewer problems than neighbourhoods focused on oil.
The reason is the price gap: table olives fetch more per kilo than oil olives, because they go directly to the consumer and are judged by different quality criteria. We covered that distinction in table olives.
⚠ The table olive price has not yet been set. The headman's hope is to close the season without a loss.
Compared with other regions
The picture matches the figures in our report on costs and carry-over stock before the harvest: daily labour in Edremit has also passed 1,500 lira. Söke's 1,600 sits slightly above that trend.
We publish current registered exchange prices in our weekly bulletin.
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