Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Turkey

Hisarcıklıoğlu, who listened to the problems and demands of the councilors and industrialists and businesspeople of Ayvalık Chamber of Commerce here, said that olives are one of the most important food items that Allah has bestowed upon mankind.

Pointing out that the olive tree lives for thousands years, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Eat olives, and Allah will grant you a disease-free, healthy long life. Olive is the most concrete indicator of this. But unfortunately, as a nation, we fail to appreciate olives. We've even just started exploring olive oil. This is a source of sadness for me.”

Stating that there was misinformation claiming olive oil is harmful to human health during childhood, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “What they suggested to us instead was corn oil extract. I remember corn oil extract on TV.  At the time, we were also importing sunflower oil. With these pressures from foreign countries, we moved away from that which was native to us, olive oil. We mistakenly said, ‘Olive oil is the cause of all kinds of diseases.’ We moved away from olive oil. We consumed the others by importing it because it was cheap. But thanks to our academics today, we have begun to understand the value of olive oil.”

Reminding that today, palm oil still comes to our country as an imported product TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “100% imported. We don't grow it at all. There's palm oil in a lot of the foods we consume today, all cancerogenic. But olive oil, which is from our own oil, is the healthiest oil. However, in the consumption of olive oil per capita, we are the last among the countries producing olives and olive oil.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu stated that Ayvalık and Ayvalık people are the architects of many olive harvesting activities throughout Turkey, and that “Olive Harvest Festival” is actually from Ayvalık. I would like to thank our chamber of commerce presidents, governors and mayors who have enabled this organization to be held since the very first time. This is where Ayvalık's difference springs from. In many places, there were no olive harvest festivals. Now it's started everywhere. Ayvalık was the pioneer. The right thing to do is for Ayvalık to hold this festival. That's how it is done now.”

Hisarcıklıoğlu argued that there are three healthy food stuffs in Turkey, “Allah gave this nation the three healthiest foods. Again, we don't appreciate them. The first is olives, the second is grapes, the third is nuts. All three are the most important food stuffs. When you go to all the doctors, they will recommend these three. It's something that when you consume these three foods, you're almost unable to get any disease. But as I mentioned, we didn't appreciate any of this. We were neither able to commercialize them or anything else.”

Stating that 450,000 families make a living from hazelnuts in Turkey, Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “In our country, 2 billion USD of income is obtained from hazelnuts per year. But on the other hand, a man was producing our hazelnuts in countries where we it didn’t grow. He came and started producing here in Trabzon. They make 10 billion USD in revenue by just putting cocoa in our nuts. One company makes 10 billion USD, while we as a country that grows 88% of the world's hazelnuts, our income is only 2 billion USD. Allah has given us such a great blessing and we are unable to seize this opportunity. But here, we are to blame, not anyone else. All of us. Allah has given us the greatest wealth. But we cannot turn olives into oil, brand and sell them.”

Stating that this vicious cycle has been going on for years, TOBB President Hisarcıklıoğlu said, “Can olive oil. Send it to Italy. If they want to lower the price, they'll say machine oil was added. They're going to kill Turkish olive oil. When you can't brand it, you're doomed to someone else’s will. We lost yogurt, which is the traditional taste of the Turkish Nation, to foreign countries. Today they sell our yogurt as 'Greek yogurt' in America and in many places around the world. The yogurt is gone. And we don't own the yogurt anymore. Right now we're importing yeast to make yogurt. If the French don't give us the yeast, we won't be able to make yogurt in Turkey. We are the homeland of yogurt. The yeast comes from outside. Unfortunately, this is the situation which we find ourselves in.”