Turkish company monopolizes olive oil exports and controls its prices in northwest Idlib

With coming of October, season of harvesting olive began in northwestern Syria. But, farmers started to complain about preventing direct exports of oil to Turkey or Syrian regions and only allowing exporting the product to Turkey indirectly through a Turkish company that works in northern countryside of Aleppo under control of the Turkish-backed factions.

The Turkish company collects large quantities of olive oil from Syrian merchants and exports it to Turkey through border crossings. According to SOHR sources, the Turkish company, to take large quantities of olive oil, sought to raise its prices slightly higher than the market price in northern Syria, the matter that prompted merchants to buy large quantities from farmers and sell it to the Turkish company.

On the other hand, to ensure preventing the merchants and farmers from exporting directly to Turkey, the Turkish side has hindered exporting the olive oil from those traders and limited the process only to the Turkish company, whose headquarters is based in Afrin City. Such obstacles caused withdrawing of olive oil quantities from the markets of the north of Syria, whether areas in Idlib and its countryside or the northern countryside of Aleppo.

In his testimony to SOHR, “A. S.” on olive oil merchants in north Idlib countryside said that “all quantities of olive oil that are sold or bought across the areas of north Syria are destined to be exported for Turkey except for the quantities that are sold to consumers in the markets because there is no other outlets allowed for merchants to export their oil.

He added, this is the second year for the Turkish company to work in northern Syria, noting it has started its activists since 2020, and it deals with certain number traders who buy oil from other s and sell it to them.

“A.S.” advises olive farmers and oil traders to avoid selling to this company because of its delay in paying money to the merchants. Even with the small increase that the company pays to the merchants, it will not increase their profits. On the contrary, many merchants lost a lot last year after selling their harvest to the Turkish company because they paid fees of transporting oil from all towns and villages in northern Syria towards Afrin amid hiking transportation costs.

Due to the Turkish monopoly of the oil produced in north Syria, and exporting of large quantities to Turkey as well as selling it at double prices, the price of olive oil jiked significantly during the first days of the beginning of the olive harvest season. It is worth noting that a 16-kg tank of medium quality oil is valued at 38 US dollars, equal to 350 LT.

In a testimony to the Syrian Observatory, a displaced man named “M.S.” from the western countryside of Hama in a camp in Deir Hassan area in the northern countryside of Idlib, says, “after I used to get a large amount of olive oil annually of his field that he fled at the beginning of 2019, now he is forced to buy its family needs of oil at high prices.

M.S. added that he has not been able to buy olive oil to store and use it during the winter, as he needs over 30 liters of oil and he does not have the ability to buy it, noting that “I’m waiting for oil prices to decrease in the coming days.”

He explains that many reasons contributed to the high prices of olive oil in general, the most important of which is exporting large quantities of oil to Turkey, high prices of fuels, costs of olive squeezing and rent of workers, as well as the taxes imposed on farmers and mills.

It is worth noting that the planted areas with olive trees significantly have been reduced after the regime forces and its proxies militias took over large swaths of Aleppo, Idlib, and Hama countryside between 2019-2020 following violent battles against the factions.

The northern Syrian regions, such as Afrin in the northern countryside of Aleppo, and the southern Idlib countryside, especially Jabal al-Zawiya, are the most famous areas for cultivating and producing high-quality olive oil, which is the most popular oil in the “Arab world” beside the Palestinian one.