A pleasing harvest in the earthquake zone; table olives are being sold at a price of 70 TL per kilogram.

The harvest of the table olive variety “halhali” has begun in the fertile lands of Arsuz district in Hatay, which was struck by the earthquake. The olives, picked individually by workers earning 1,000 TL per day, find buyers at a price of 70 TL per kilogram after processing.

Hatay, home to some of the most fertile lands in Turkey, produces dozens of crops. Agriculture, which plays an important role in the city’s recovery after the earthquake, has become a source of hope for the local people. The harvest has begun in the 100-year-old olive trees in Kurtbağı neighborhood of Arsuz district. Sezer Kala and his family, residents of Kurtbağı who have started to hold on to life through production after the disaster of the century, continue olive production on a 30-decare field. The carefully harvested table olives are sold for 70 TL per kilogram after processing, while agricultural workers earn 1,000 TL daily.

“We cannot estimate a certain tonnage, this year’s yield is very good, the calibration is also very good, we are very satisfied with the harvest.”

Sezer Kala, the 32-year-old owner of the garden, stated that they started harvesting early in the morning, saying, “With the arrival of August, we start harvesting halhali olives. This continues until November and December. We have both our own planted olives and 100-year-old trees inherited from our grandfather. On average, the workers earn 1,000 TL, including expenses. We start at six in the morning and continue until a maximum of 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM because it gets hot. We cannot estimate a certain tonnage; this year’s yield is very good, the calibration is also very good, and we are very satisfied with the harvest. We are trying to deliver this to the consumer. We have 30 decares of land here. We work according to the weather conditions and we stop early in very hot weather. If the weather is cloudy, we try to be a little more resilient. After we pick the olives, we will go home and first sift and classify them before crushing them in the crushing machine and packing them into barrels. Depending on the buyer’s demand, we will crush them into five-liter PETs, three-liter PETs, 25-kilogram barrels, and 50-kilogram barrels. Right now, we are talking about a price of 70 TL for the classification we call ‘mother and daughter’ separation.”