`ZZTK: Advancing Turkish Olive Oil Abroad - Olive Oil Times

ZZTK: Advancing Turkish Olive Oil Abroad

By Umut Egitimci
Feb. 22, 2011 08:04 UTC

Inspite of its numer­ous ben­e­fits, olive oil still needs to be pro­moted in the world mar­ket. Among the orga­ni­za­tions who work to pro­mote Turkish olive oil abroad is the Promotional Committee for Olive and Olive Oil ( ZZTK ). It was estab­lished in 2007 to pro­mote table olives and olive oil in coun­tries includ­ing the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, Russia, South Korea, India, the United Kingdom, Romania and China.



The aim of the com­mit­tee is to increase the efforts directed to the for­eign mar­kets, diver­sify Turkish export mar­kets and imple­ment pro­mo­tional cam­paigns for the estab­lish­ment of the Turkish olive oil brand and image. The group is also aim­ing to ensure prod­uct diver­sity in accor­dance with the demands from the world mar­kets and to enhance the mar­ket chan­nels while apply­ing a sus­tain­able pric­ing pol­icy. As for sales within Turkey, the com­mit­tee car­ries out pro­mo­tional activ­i­ties to develop the domes­tic mar­ket and increase local olive oil con­sump­tion.

In 2011, the com­mit­tee will be attend­ing five fairs around the world in order to intro­duce and pro­mote Turkish olive oil. The plan is to present dif­fer­ent type of olives from nine regions in Turkey. The first fair that the com­mit­tee will attend this year is Prodexpo International Exhibition for Food, Beverages and Food Raw Materials which will take place in Moscow, Russia between the 7th and 11th of February. The ZZTK co-chair­man of the board Metin Ölken has said that they would like Russians to taste and rate table olives and olive oils from the regions of Edremit, Gemlik, Ayvalık, Akhisar, Aydın, Antakya, Milas, Mut and Nizip in Turkey.

Between the 1st and 4th of March, dur­ing the Foodex Japan, the 36th International Food and Beverage Exhibition in Tokyo, the com­mit­tee will orga­nize a gala din­ner to intro­duce the dishes made with Turkish olive oil. Mr. Ülken said, Last November, a major pur­chase com­mit­tee from Japan vis­ited us in Turkey. We would like to strenghen our rela­tions and are aim­ing to cap­ture 25 per­cent of the Japanese mar­ket. We need to work on this issue because of the upcom­ing excess sup­ply in the domes­tic mar­ket.”

Another food fair that Turkish olive oil will be pre­sented is the IFE11. This inter­na­tional food and drink event in London will take place between the 13th and 16th of March. In this fair, the com­mit­tee is plan­ning to pro­mote table olives from dif­fer­ent regions of Turkey. Between the 8th and 12th of October, the com­mit­tee will attend Anuga in Cologne, Germany.

And finally, before the year ends, the Committee will go to China to attend the FHC2011 in Shanghai. The fair will be held between the 16th and 18th of November. Mr. Ülken has reminded that in China, the olive oil con­sump­tion was around 12,000 tons in 2010 and it’s been expected to reach around 65,000 tons by 2012. Therefore the com­mit­tee is aim­ing high for Turkish olive oil to get more of the share in the huge Chinese mar­ket.

While these efforts of the ZZTK con­tin­ues, the com­mit­tee’s co-chair­man Mr. Ülken pointed out the high cus­tom taxes of the European Union and men­tioned that their wish for Turkey would be to have sim­i­lar quo­tas for imports from Tunisia, Syria and Palestine.

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