Turkish – Italian Consortium To Open Olive Oil Refinery In Aydin
Turkey sits among the world’s largest olive oil producers, and its Aegean heartland around Aydin is the reason. A plan to build a refinery there opens a useful question: what is refined olive oil, and where does it fit?
Every so often news breaks of a new olive oil facility opening in Turkey — a refinery, a mill, a bottling line, often with foreign partners. It is easy to skim past, but it points to something many people outside the trade do not realise: Turkey is one of the biggest olive oil producers on earth, and its Aegean coast is serious olive country. The province of Aydin, in the south Aegean, is at the centre of it. A new refinery there is worth pausing on, because it lets us clear up one of the most misunderstood words on the shelf.
Turkey’s Aegean olive country
The Aegean region produces the large majority of Turkey’s olive oil, and Aydin is one of its anchors. The signature local variety is Memecik, which gives a fruity, often robustly bitter and peppery oil — good, characterful stuff that has earned protected-origin recognition. Turkey has spent years modernising and expanding its industry, and outside investment in mills and refineries is part of that push to turn a huge crop into more, and better-handled, bottled oil rather than selling it cheaply in bulk.
So what does a refinery do?
This is the part worth understanding. A refinery does not make extra virgin oil — extra virgin is made at the mill, by pressing good fruit, and refining would destroy exactly what makes it special. Refining exists to rescue oil that is not good enough to sell as virgin: lampante oil that is too acidic or defective. Through heat, filtering and treatment, the refinery strips out the faults — and, with them, most of the flavour, colour and aroma — leaving a neutral, stable oil. A little virgin oil is then blended back in for taste, and the result is sold as plain ‘olive oil’ or ‘pure’.
Refined is not a scandal, but know what it is
There is nothing dishonest about refined olive oil in itself — it is a legitimate, useful, neutral cooking oil, and refining lets a producing country make something saleable out of a crop that would otherwise be wasted. The problem only arises when refined oil is passed off, or blended, to seem like extra virgin. So read a Turkish oil the way you would any other: extra virgin for flavour and finishing, plain refined ‘olive oil’ for high-heat cooking on a budget — and do not confuse a refinery’s product with the mill’s.
What to take from it
- Turkey is a major olive oil producer; the Aegean around Aydin is its heartland.
- The local Memecik olive gives a fruity, peppery, characterful oil worth seeking out.
- A refinery cleans up faulty oil into neutral cooking oil — it does not make extra virgin.
- Refined oil is fine for frying; buy extra virgin for anything where you taste the oil.
Turkish olive oil and refining: common questions
Is Turkey a big olive oil producer?
Yes, consistently one of the world’s largest. Its Aegean coast, including Aydin and Izmir, is a major olive-growing region.
What is the main olive variety around Aydin?
Memecik, the dominant south-Aegean cultivar, which gives a fruity oil with notable bitterness and pepper. It has earned protected-origin recognition.
Does a refinery make extra virgin olive oil?
No. Extra virgin is produced at the mill from good fruit. A refinery treats lower-grade oil into a neutral, stable product, sold as plain ‘olive oil’ or ‘pure’.
Is refined olive oil bad?
Not as such. It is a legitimate neutral cooking oil, useful for high-heat cooking. It simply lacks the flavour and much of the beneficial compound content of extra virgin, and should not be sold as if it were extra virgin.
How should I choose Turkish olive oil?
The same way as any oil: extra virgin, ideally with a harvest date, for flavour and finishing; plain refined ‘olive oil’ for budget high-heat cooking.
People hear ‘refinery’ and assume something shady, and people hear ‘Turkish’ and forget it is one of the great olive nations. Both instincts are wrong. Turkey grows superb oil, especially from Memecik on the Aegean coast, and a refinery is simply the part of the industry that turns unsellable, faulty oil into a neutral cooking product instead of throwing it away. The only thing to guard against is the old trick of dressing refined oil up as extra virgin. Buy the mill’s oil for flavour, the refinery’s for the frying pan, and keep the two straight in your head.
Drawn from Turkey’s position in global olive oil production and the standard role of refining in the trade.