A Turkish Cypriot marketing cooperative is exporting olive oil to the UK after 25 years.
The cooperative, made up of tradesmen, craftsmen and producers, exported three tons of olive oil to the UK three months ago. There are plans to export a further eight tons of olive oil within the next two weeks.
The goal of the cooperative is to export 15 tons of olive oil to the UK every six weeks. At the same time other products such as pekmez and pekmez products have already been exported to the UK.
President of the cooperative Hürrem Tulga, recalled that tariffs had been imposed on Turkish Cypriot products following a ruling by the European Court of Justice in 1994, after complaints from the Greek Cypriot side. The EU ruling increased the cost of goods exported to the EU from North Cyprus, thereby making the venture unprofitable.
Tulga said “Our olives are the highest quality products in the world. We have attended many fairs, so we know this. It is assumed that the best quality olive products come from Syria and our olives are in the same category and quality as there. So Cyprus is the homeland of olives. While we had such a beautiful product, we were neither able to reproduce olive trees properly, nor could we produce products of the desired quality due to lack of policy. Since we have seen these shortcomings, we have been carrying out these studies for nine years”.
The cooperative was formed in 2018 to ensure the best quality olive oil was produced and to find new markets.
Since Brexit, exporting to the UK which is no longer a member of the EU, now makes business sense.
Kıbrıs Gazetesi
