Publication of an application for registration of a name pursuant to Article 50(2)(a) of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council on quality schemes for agricultural products and foodstuffs

(2023/C 72/12)

This publication confers the right to oppose the application pursuant to Article 51 of Regulation (EU) No 1151/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council (1) within three months from the date of this publication.

SINGLE DOCUMENT

‘Gemlik Zeytini’

EU No: PDO-TR-02618 – 10.7.2020

PDO (X) PGI ( )

1.   Name(s) [of PDO or PGI]

‘Gemlik Zeytini’

2.   Member State or Third Country

Turkey

3.   Description of the agricultural product or foodstuff

3.1.   Type of product

Class 1.6. Fruit, vegetables and cereals fresh or processed

3.2.   Description of product to which the name in (1) applies

‘Gemlik Zeytini’ is a table olive that formed a whole olive with a colour from claret red, darkish brown to black, characterized by thin skin, thick flesh and small and roundish stone. Gemlik Zeytini is processed by two methods. First is ‘pickled olives’ which Gemlik Zeytini process into brine by using sea-salt, water and applying pressure with heavy stones. Second is Gemlik Zeytini salted and packed without using water which called as ‘sele’. ‘Sele’ type separates as ‘kuru sele’ (dry) just using sea-salt and ‘yağlı sele’ (oily) that adding some vegetables oils such as corn oil or sunflower oil. Cited vegetable oils used in the ‘yağlı sele’ (oily) are not important for the link or specificity of the product; ‘Gemlik Zeytini’ is blended with corn oil or sunflower oil between 3 % and 5 % of the weight of the olive put in the package and called as ‘yağlı sele’. Olives are naturally fermented without any alkaline treatment. The olive is neither crushed nor damaged. Free from foreign materials, odours or insects. Defects are not tolerated for the olives.

The flesh is smooth, moist and highly aromatized, it easily separates from the stone. Flesh/stone weight ratio is between 6/1 and 7/1.

‘Gemlik Zeytini’ skin is thin and adhering to the flesh.

‘Gemlik Zeytini’ is small to medium in size. The size of the olives range between 201 – 410 fruits per kilogram.

‘Gemlik Zeytini’ has high oil content between 28 – 35 %.

Main terpenes of Gemlik Zeytini are α-Cyclogeraniol (green and sweet) and (E,E)-α-Farnesene (woody). There is a 4,00 – 5,00 ppm chemical shift between Gemlik area and other areas.

Processed ‘Gemlik Zeytini’ are graded by the number of fruits per kg; olives of 201 – 230 are graded as “X-Large (XL), 231-260 ‘Large’ (L); 261-290 ‘Medium’ (M); 291-320 ‘Small’ (S); 321-350 ‘X-Small’ (XS); 351-380 ‘2X Small’ (2XS) and the last grade is 381-410 ‘3X Small’ (3XS).

3.3.   Feed (for products of animal origin only) and raw materials (for processed products only)

‘Gemlik Zeytini’ is produced exclusively from ripe fruits of O. europaea L. ‘Gemlik’, ‘Gemlik 21’ and ‘Gemlik 27’ varieties. Any other varieties mixed in during harvest may not exceed 5 %.

3.4.   Specific steps in production that must take place in the identified geographical area

The production of unprocessed olives and processing must take place in the delimited geographical area.

3.5.   Specific rules concerning slicing, grating, packaging, etc. of the product the registered name refers to

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3.6.   Specific rules concerning labelling of the product the registered name refers to

In addition to the compulsory information provided for by legislation on the labelling and presentation of foodstuffs, labels must include the following:

—	The name of the designation ‘Gemlik Zeytini’,

—	Trade name and address or short name and address or registered mark of the producer,

—	European Union PDO logo

—	Label that integrated with hologram, logo and QR code of authenticity

4.   Concise definition of the geographical area

The geographical area comprises Gemlik, İznik, Mudanya and Orhangazi districts of Bursa province, located in southern Marmara region of Turkey.

5.   Link with the geographical area

Causal link

‘Gemlik Zeytini’ gains its own characteristics from the climate conditions (temperature and rainfall), geography (altitude), soil composition and know-how in processing of the table olive that is developed over the years by the local producers of the Gemlik, Iznik, Mudanya and Orhangazi districts. O. europaea L. ‘Gemlik’, ‘Gemlik 21’ and ‘Gemlik 27’ varieties are well-adapted to the region and fruits of the varieties have some different character when it compared with other regions.

Specificity of the geographical area

The climate characteristics that give Gemlik Olive its high oil content, smooth and moist flesh and highly aromatized taste arise from the sheltered bays of Gemlik and Mudanya, and the fact that the Orhangazi and Iznik districts are both close to the bay and settled around the lake cause the olives grown and processed in these four districts to show similar quality characteristics. Olive plants require average temperature conditions of 15 – 20 °C during flowering and fruit ripening period and a minimum of 5 °C from ripening to harvest period. In addition, olive needs a certain cold period during the formation of the flower bud. Olives are very sensitive to low temperatures and will be damaged if the minimum daily temperature falls below -7 °C. Bursa has a transitional climate and this climate makes it very suitable to grow good quality olives. Transitional climate shows the mix features of Mediterranean and Black Sea climate. It may be considered as a special corridor between Black Sea and Mediterranean in terms of climate. The average daily temperature in the geographical area is minimum 5,8 °C in January, and 6,8 °C in February which is very suitable for cooling period. The lowest average temperature is 16,9 °C in May which is the flowering period and the lowest average temperature is 21,1 °C in the fruit ripening period. These temperature values are nearly optimum growing conditions for olive trees and gives high yield of olives. Air temperature affects the skin thickness and adhesiveness of the skin of Gemlik Zeytini. Transitional climate cause cooler temperature at growing stage of the olives. In the other regions at higher temperature olive fruit develops a defence mechanism by thickening its skin to protect it from high temperatures. Gemlik Zeytini is both thin-skinned and skin is tightly adhesive into the flesh. Due to this feature of Gemlik Zeytini, any expert or consumer do not feel the skin in the mouth when they are eating the olives.

Temperature and altitude effects the amount and type of terpenes (aromatic compounds) are discriminative for taste of L. ‘Gemlik’, ‘Gemlik 21’ and ‘Gemlik 27’ varieties. Olives from warmer regions with lower altitudes contains higher amount of terpenes compared to cooler regions with higher altitudes. Because the geographical area is situated in a cooler region with high altitude that is 112 m from sea-level as an average ‘Gemlik Zeytini’ cultivated in the geographical area can be distinguished from those cultivated in warmer regions with higher terpenes content. Main terpenes of Gemlik zeytini are α-Cyclogeraniol (green and sweet) and (E,E)-α-Farnesene (woody). There is a 4,00 – 5,00 ppm chemical shift between Gemlik area and other areas.

One of the most distinctive features of Gemlik zeytini is its deep black colour. Temperature affects the colouring of Gemlik zeytini. Optimum day temperature for anthocyanin synthesis is between 25-30 °C, but above 30-35 °C anthocyanin synthesis decreases. In addition, lack of light delays coloration and slow down the formation of aromatic substances necessary for taste.

Rainfall regime of the region effects the yield and quality of the product. While rainfall in April (61,8 mm) affects the yield, rainfall in September (43,7 mm) affects the size and oil content of the olives.

The soil composition is 63 % clay-loam, 20 % loam and 17 % clay. It was determined that olive trees developed best in loamy and loamy soils. This type of soil retains water and makes it possible for olives trees to grow stronger roots to give higher yields. It is seen that the region has suitable soil characteristics in terms of olive cultivation. More than 60 % of the total agricultural land is used for olive farming in Orhangazi, Gemlik, Mudanya and Iznik districts.

‘Gemlik Zeytini’ have been cultivated and processed in Bursa province for a very long time. In addition, ‘Gemlik Zeytini’ produced in Gemlik and Mudanya districts have a reputation from very ancient times. As a result of the researches carried out in the Ottoman Archives, it was determined that olive was produced from these districts for the navy and palace during the Ottoman Empire and olive production was preserved during the Ottoman Empire due to the good taste and quality of the black table olives produced in Gemlik, Mudanya Iznik and Orhangazi districts. There are 107 records for the Gemlik district, 86 for the Mudanya district, 13 for the Orhangazi district and 11 for the Iznik district are now kept in the Ottoman archives.

Beside of the historical reputation of the ‘Gemlik Zeytini’, processing method has also reputation and the name of the processing technique come from the same area that is called as ‘Gemlik style/type processed’. It is fermented in pools with water and salt without using any additives. In Gemlik style processing the osmosis becomes faster. As a result, softening is prevented and the texture of Gemlik zeytini becomes harder.

In Gemlik style processing bitterness is partially leached into the brine, a slightly bitter taste is retained in olives also with a fruity flavour. In addition, this processing method creates a weak acidic taste in Gemlik zeytini.

In Gemlik-type processing, for ‘Salamura’ style olives: The olives are harvested when the flesh of the fruit turns purple 2 mm deep to the stone. They are transferred to the processing facility. After size-grading and sorting, the olives are washed and put in concrete pools or polyethylene, polyester or fiberglass tanks. Tanks are filled with potable water (12 % of total olive weight). Brine concentration is around 8 – 14 % sea-salt. The olives are covered with boards and heavy stones (10 - 25 % of total olive weight) to keep them submerged in brine during fermentation. As a result of the high osmotic pressure applied by the salt, olives are debittered and became consumable in 6-9 months. Aerated fermentation can also be used to speed up the fermentation process, shortening the fermentation period. Through this, the fermentation period takes around 5 months. During the fermentation, brine is replaced after salt and pH controls are done. The salinity in the tanks is checked every 2 or 3 days and salt is added if necessary. The goal of this application is to attain the shape that is slightly flat on both sides which is specially preferred by the consumer.

‘Sele’ style olives: Harvested olives are washed, graded by size and salted and packed without water. Olives and salt (10 %–14 % salt of the total weight of olives) are placed into containers in alternate layers. This contact of olive fruit directly with salt enables the penetration of salt into the olive fruit easily. Once every 2-3 days the plastic containers are turned and rolled to increase the contact of olives with salt This phase takes at least 3 to 4 months. After de-bittering process, the skin of the olives become highly wrinkled.

Specificity of the product

The specificity of ‘Gemlik Zeytini’ is linked to its;

—	Thin skin which adheres strongly to the flesh. Skin properties also change under changing climatic conditions.

—	Maximum 410 fruits per kg

—	Maximum 14 % salt ratio (in brine basin/tank)

—	Thick flesh

—	Round fruit shape, small stone

—	Hard texture

—	High fruity aroma

—	Low Bitterness and acidity tastes

—	Deep black colour

These characteristics are influenced by the O. europaea L. ‘Gemlik’, ‘Gemlik 21’ and ‘Gemlik 27’ varieties which been cultivated in the region for generations and the climate. While climate, soil composition and geography effects the size, colour, shape, skin and aroma of the olives, human factors affect the texture and taste of the product.

Reference to publication of the specification

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(1)  OJ L 343, 14.12.2012, p. 1.