CIHEAM Press Review

A lack of cooperation throughout the sector is hurting producers’ bottom lines, according to an agricultural institute study.

The Italian olive sector lags largely below its potential because of the lack of a shared vision and solid data upon which the future of the industry should be developed, according to the latest report from the Institute for Services to the Agricultural Market (Ismea).

The IOC celebrates World Olive Day on 26 November every year, but this year marks the first anniversary since its official creation by UNESCO. To commemorate the occasion, the IOC has organized an international seminar on “The future of the olive sector”. Please join us from 10.30am by clicking on the following link: https://olyusei.zoom.us/j/98899675779 Séminaire […]

La bactérie Xylella fastidiosa, qui s'attaque aux oliviers, a fait l'objet d'une conférence à Ajaccio (Corse-du-Sud), mardi 29 octobre. L'objectif est d'essayer d'appréhender cette maladie qui décime des milliers d'arbres, notamment en Italie, où la récolte est fortement impactée en 2019. Dans le sud du pays, elle fait des ravages depuis plusieurs années, comme à Ugento. Devant les pelleteuses qui arrachent ses arbres, un oléiculteur est au bord des larmes.

Blanca Torrent, the exec­u­tive direc­tor of Andalusia-based Torrent Olives, was among the win­ners of the 2020 Mujer Agro awards in Madrid.
Presented by Spain’s National Association of Agronomic Engineers (INIA), the dig­i­tal news­pa­per eComercioAgrario and the Siete Agromarketing agency, the award rec­og­nizes the work of women in the agri­cul­tural sec­tor to pro­mote gen­der equal­ity and empower other women work­ing in the sec­tor.

In spite of extreme weather and low olive oil prices, 62 per­cent of respon­dents to the Olive Oil Times 2019 Harvest Survey reported above-aver­age to excel­lent yields.
An even larger number of pro­duc­ers — 85 per­cent — rated the qual­ity of the oil that they pro­duced either above aver­age or excel­lent.
With an aver­age rating of 68 out of 100 for quan­tity and 82 for qual­ity, pro­duc­ers widely acknowl­edged that 2019 was a better year than 2018 when the aver­age rating for quan­tity was 54 and 74 for qual­ity.

A recent study by Jerash University, in Jordan, has found that olives cultivated at higher elevations yield higher quality oils that those cultivated at lower elevations.
The researchers compared oils produced at 750 feet below sea level, in the Jordan Valley, with those produced at 1,600, 2,230 and 2,580 meters above sea level in Al-Subaihi, Kufaranja and Madaba, respectively.

In this episode of Futuris, Euronews' Julian Gomez travels to Italy to look at a European research project that's attempting to find a cure for the deadly olive tree disease Xylella Fastidiosa.

The first phase of the Med-Gold project is approach­ing com­ple­tion and the results could rev­o­lu­tion­ize how olive grow­ers plan for the future.
The four-year project funded by the European Union seeks to pro­vide olive, grape and wheat grow­ers with infor­ma­tion that can be used to develop short, inter­me­di­ate and long-term strate­gies to com­bat cli­mate change and pests.

Moroccan olive oil production is expected to exceed that of Tunisia, Turkey and Portugal.

In spite of the consecutive years of decline, olive oil production in Morocco continues to trend upward, mostly due to a government initiative to plant more olive trees.

For olive oil to be labeled extra virgin, there is a list of inter­na­tion­ally rec­og­nized qual­ity stan­dards that it must sat­isfy. However, for French pro­ducer Emilie Borel, cre­at­ing an extra virgin olive oil is much more than ful­fill­ing a set of cri­te­ria.
“Extra virgin olive oil starts with the person,” she told Olive Oil Times. “It’s some­thing you grow up with, look at, and touch. The olives are hand­picked. It’s a cul­ture, a Mediterranean cul­ture.”