Turkey's leading oil producer/marketer and the world's largest table olive producer, Marmara Olive Agriculture Sales Cooperatives Association (Marmarabirlik), is set to establish a storage facility in Cologne, Germany, in order to increase exports of olive and olive oil to the European Union.
The production and storage facility, which will be built on 3,000 square meters of land to be provided by the Cologne municipality under suitable conditions and will benefit from grant funds of the German Development Agency, is expected to cost around 2 million euros.
Marmarabirlik Chairman Hidamet Asa told Anadolu Agency (AA) that the plan is to strengthen their branches in Cologne and increase their sales abroad.
Asa also said they held talks with Cologne Municipality regarding the land assignment for the investment of 2 million euros they plan to realize.
"A high-capacity storage facility is planned to be built on 3,000 square meters of land which will be provided on a very favorable conditions from the municipality of Cologne," he said.
He also said after the completion of the project, a process for the land assignment and grant applications will be initiated.
"A processing facility and administrative buildings will be built along with the storage facility. Our aim is to provide profits to our partners by making Marmarabirlik a global brand. Thanks to the new investment, the availability and diversity of our products in markets in Europe and Marmarabirlik's foreign sales will increase incrementally," he added.
Asa emphasized that the new storage facility in Cologne will function as a logistics warehouse for the ongoing transit trade.
"We have been carrying out transit trade since 2015 to overcome the EU's export quota on Turkey's olive oil. Our new storage facility in Cologne will be an important logistic center for transit trade. We will sell olive oil from Cologne to Europe via the Marmarabirlik brand," he said.
He also said that with the settlement of the storage problem in Europe, the range of products and their presence at the markets in the region would increase.