Türkiye is consistently among the top handful of olive and olive-oil nations.
Olive culture in Türkiye runs as deep as anywhere in the Mediterranean, centred on the Aegean coast. Its table-olive star is the Gemlik, the small, soft, oil-rich black olive that anchors the Turkish breakfast table, served whole with cheese, bread and tea.
Turkey is a major producer of both table olives and oil, yet its olives are far less known abroad than the Italian, Spanish and Greek names — a reminder that the olive belongs to many more places than the famous few. The Turkish olives we’ve covered so far are below.