World olive varieties: from Picual to Kalamata

Roughly 1,200 olive cultivars have been described worldwide. The number that matters commercially is far smaller — a few dozen varieties carry most of world production.

Türkiye's own position shows the same pattern: as of 2021 the country has 100 registered varieties (two hybrids, one clone), yet outside Gemlik, Ayvalık, Memecik and Domat, production volumes are very limited.

The olive world rests on a broad gene pool and a narrow commercial base.

Leading varieties by country

⚠ This table is general reference information, not values we measured or took from a single source. The sections below report measured data, with sources given.

Measured data: Arbequina and Manzanilla

Two world varieties have been measured academically in Türkiye, trialled alongside nine Turkish varieties at Çukurova University's gene resource orchard:

Source: Gündeşli and Küden (2020). More detail: chilling requirement in olives.

Arbequina coming out smallest on every measure is no accident — the variety was selected for a small canopy and small fruit.

The three varieties of super-intensive planting

The biggest change in world olive growing over the last thirty years is super-intensive planting (200-300 trees per decare). The system rests on three varieties:

• Arbequina (Spain)
• Arbosana (Spain)
• Koroneiki (Greece)

All three have small canopies and come into bearing early. The system grows a hedge rather than a tree, harvested by continuous machines resembling grape harvesters.

⚠ Türkiye does not use the model. Trials were made but failed, and the reason was not the variety but the system: groves planted with Spanish varieties suited to super-intensive growing were managed on small plots by traditional methods. More: twenty trees per decare, or 250?

Türkiye's own varieties — Memecik, Ayvalık, Gemlik — were never bred for it. Every country runs breeding programmes to find which of its varieties suit the system; that is long work.

Compared with Türkiye's varieties

The real observation from the table: Türkiye is rich in genetic resources but narrow in commercial base. Ninety-six of the hundred registered varieties are in limited production. That is both a risk (dependence on four varieties) and an opportunity (unused genetic diversity).

The nameless genotypes of the southeast are the concrete example: local genotypes with no name, never catalogued, yet beating the standard varieties on flesh ratio.

Summary

• About 1,200 cultivars are described worldwide; commercial weight sits in a few dozen.
• Türkiye has 100 registered varieties (2021), but production concentrates in four.
• Spain's Picual holds one of the largest shares of world oil production.
• Kalamata and Manzanilla are the best-known table varieties.
• Frantoio and Leccino are Tuscany's emblem; Coratina is known for very high polyphenols.
• Super-intensive planting rests on three varieties: Arbequina, Arbosana, Koroneiki.
• Measured: Arbequina IRTA-18 had the trial's smallest fruit (1.09 g) and lowest flesh ratio (0.76).
• Türkiye is genetically rich but commercially narrow — both a risk and an opportunity.

Sources

Measured values:

t; Gündeşli, K.T. and Küden, A.B. (2020). Determination of chilling requirements and fruit quality characteristics of some domestic and foreign olive cultivars. Anadolu Journal of Agricultural Sciences, 35: 285-291. — Arbequina IRTA-18 and Manzanilla measurements

t; Atmaca, S. and Ülger, S. (2017). Olive High Density Planting in Turkey and the World. Zeytin Bilimi, 7(1): 17-24. — Super-intensive varieties

t; Sevim, D., Varol, N. and Köseoğlu, O. (2022). The Effects of Global Climate Change on Olive Growing and Olive Oil. Journal of the Agricultural Faculty of Bursa Uludağ University, 36(2): 415-432. — Number of registered varieties in Türkiye

⚠ The country-by-country table is general reference information and contains no measured values.

Related reading: Olive varieties (Türkiye) · Chilling requirement in olives · Twenty trees per decare, or 250? · The nameless olives of southeast Anatolia