Turkey grows more olives than almost any country on earth — and its harvest is not one harvest but three: early green table olives from September, the famous black table olives of Gemlik through the winter, and oil olives running into February. That calendar creates a question most netting guides never answer: how does one fleet of harvest nets serve three different harvests in the same grove, in the same season, without being bought three times? This guide covers how Turkish growers can spec olive harvest nets by end use — table grade versus oil grade — rotate one fleet across the season, and time a purchase from a Chinese factory to land before the first picking.
Short answer: Turkish olive growing splits into two economies that share trees, regions and sometimes the same grove — table olives and oil olives — and they ask different things from a harvest net. The Aegean coast (Aydın, İzmir, Manisa, Muğla) is the volume engine, dominated by oil varieties on sloping, terraced groves. The Gemlik district near Bursa is the flagship of black table olives, where fruit is hand-picked over weeks as it colors. A grower — or more often a contractor crew moving grove to grove — may pick early green table fruit in September, Gemlik-style black fruit from November into January, and oil olives from November to February. The practical consequence: the same set of nets can work two or even three picking campaigns in one season if it is bought and handled for rotation. That changes the buying math completely — the question is not “what does a net cost” but “what does a net cost per campaign” when it serves three of them before winter storage.
The end use decides what a damaged olive costs you, and that decides the net. For table olives, the fruit itself is the product and its appearance is the grade: an olive that hits bare ground picks up soil, bruises and micro-cuts, and bruised or dirty fruit is sorted out of premium table packs. The net’s job here is cosmetic protection — a clean, soft landing surface that keeps fruit off the soil and out of the mud, so the harvest goes straight to brining in premium condition. For oil olives, fruit is destined for the mill and appearance barely matters; what matters is volume and cleanliness at scale — catching everything the shaker drops, keeping it out of the soil so it needs less washing at the mill, and moving fast. Mud is the hidden tax of a winter oil harvest: olives picked from wet soil carry dirt into the crate, the transport and the washing line, and millers notice.
The working spec from our production for both economies: knitted HDPE harvest nets at 85 / 90 / 95 / 100 gsm, in eight standard panel sizes from 3×6 m up to 12×12 m, with reinforced edges and knitted-in eyelets. Lighter grades (85–90 gsm) are the hand-harvest choice — a crew carrying, spreading and re-folding panels all day feels every kilogram, and table-olive picking moves constantly. Heavier grades (95–100 gsm) are the shaker-harvest choice — more fabric per square metre where rakes and machinery work the canopy and panels take the beating. All grades are 100% HDPE with UV stabilization and a service life of 3–10 years depending on grade and care. Full detail is on the olive harvest net product page.
This is where the Turkish calendar becomes an advantage instead of a complication. A rotation plan that works: buy one fleet sized for your largest single block, not for your whole area. Deploy it in September for early table fruit, then move it — washed if it picked up orchard soil, dried before folding — to the black table harvest from November, and finally to the oil blocks into the new year. Three campaigns, one purchase, and the per-campaign cost of the net drops to a third of the naive figure. Two rules make rotation work. First, never fold and stack a wet net: a panel folded wet in November grows mildew that weakens the yarn by February, right when the oil harvest needs it most — spread it over a fence or a wire for an hour and it dries in the Aegean breeze. Second, repair in the gaps between campaigns, not during them: a ten-minute patch with same-material netting between blocks saves the hour-long repairs that mid-harvest tears demand. Our olive net care and storage guide has the full maintenance routine, and the labor-cost analysis shows what nets save a picking crew in pure time terms.
Much of the Aegean growing is on sloping, terraced ground, and slope changes how panels should be laid. The rule is the roofer’s rule: shingle the panels downhill — start at the bottom of the row and overlap each higher panel over the lower one, like roof tiles, so an olive rolling downhill lands on the next panel instead of finding the gap between them. Laid the other way, every overlap becomes a funnel that delivers fruit into the dirt. On terraces, keep panels inside the terrace edge or weigh the outer edge — a net that drapes over the drop loses olives over it and sails in the valley wind. And on any layout, anchor the corners: eyelets exist exactly for this, and ten seconds with a ground peg per corner is cheaper than chasing a wind-lifted panel across the grove while the crew waits. For grove-by-grove spec comparisons across different olive regions, the Tunisia harvest guide shows how a wide-spaced dryland system specs the same product family differently.
The working-back math for a Turkish buyer: production runs 25–35 days after deposit, and ocean freight to Izmir or Ambarlı adds roughly a month, plus customs. For the September table-olive start, the deposit should be in by early July; for the November–February oil and Gemlik campaigns, by early September at the latest — earlier if you want custom sizes, since custom cutting adds scheduling time in peak season. Buyers who call in October are buying for next year, which is fine — as long as the conversation knows it. The MOQ is 2 tons, which in olive-net terms is roughly 22,000 m² at 90 gsm — enough for several hectares of panels — and a mixed order can split across GSM grades and panel sizes so one container serves both your table crews and your shaker crews. A 40’HQ carries 14–15 tons for buyers stocking a full season or a distribution yard.
OMB Textiles is a knitted HDPE netting manufacturer in Changzhou, China — founded in 2003, supplying harvest nets to growers, cooperatives and distributors in the olive world, from Greece and Italy to Spain, France and Tunisia. For a Turkish program: 85–100 gsm panels in eight standard sizes plus custom dimensions, reinforced edges with eyelets, 100% HDPE with UV stabilization, 3–10 year service life. MOQ is 2 tons with grades and sizes mixed; production runs 25–35 days after deposit; payment is T/T 30/70 or L/C at sight; sample panels are free with courier on the buyer. Send your block layout, harvest method (hand or shaker), target campaigns and destination port through the contact page or WhatsApp — we reply within 24 hours with a panel spec and a rotation-aware quantity plan.
85–90 gsm. Hand-harvest crews spread, move and re-fold panels all day, so fabric weight is a real labor factor — lighter panels move faster and still give table fruit the clean landing surface that protects its grade. Save the heavier grades for machine work.
Yes — that is exactly the rotation play. A 90 gsm mid-grade fleet handles hand-picked table fruit in autumn and shaker-harvested oil olives in winter. Wash off orchard soil between campaigns, never fold wet, and patch small tears in the gaps rather than mid-harvest.
3–10 years depending on grade and care. UV-stabilized 100% HDPE is the baseline; what actually decides the number is handling — drying before folding, storing dry and dark, and repairing small damage early. A rotated fleet that gets cleaned between campaigns reaches the top of the range.
Count back from your first picking date: 25–35 days of production plus roughly a month of ocean freight and customs. For September table olives, deposit by early July; for November–February oil and black table campaigns, by early September. Custom sizes need extra scheduling room in peak season.
Yes. Eight standard sizes from 3×6 m to 12×12 m cover most spacings, and custom dimensions are a production setting for us. Measure your row width and the ground you actually want covered — a panel that matches the row lays faster and loses fewer olives at the edges.
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