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 lim­ited sup­ply of extra vir­gin olive oil in Europe has cre­ated the con­di­tions for an upward trend in pro­ducer prices in Greece.
However, the Greek mar­ket is mov­ing at a slug­gish pace due to traders’ reluc­tance to buy based on their medium-term needs. So far, olive oil prices remain unchanged since last December.

A devaluing local currency coupled with the scarcity of hard currencies has made production more expensive. Producers are turning to exports as a solution.

Lebanese olive oil pro­duc­tion is expected to reach 26,000 tons in the 2020/21 crop year, accord­ing to the lat­est data from the International Olive Council.
While this fig­ure is not too much higher than the rolling five-year aver­age (23,500 tons), a shift is begin­ning to take place in the sec­tor.

A heated debate between olive oil pro­duc­ers in Crete and Sevitel, the asso­ci­a­tion of Greek bot­tlers of olive oil, has ignited over the inten­tion of the Cretan pro­duc­ers to mar­ket their olive oil under one com­mon PGI label.
Α group of Cretan pro­duc­ers rep­re­sent­ing all the island’s regions has sub­mit­ted an appli­ca­tion to the Greek Ministry of Agriculture to obtain Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) sta­tus for the name ​“Crete” with the European Union.

Exports of Italian extra vir­gin olive oils with a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO or DOP) and Protected Geographical Indicator (PGI or IGP) increased by 55 per­cent over the last five years, ris­ing from €40 to €62 million.
Annual con­sump­tion of oils with pro­tected geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tions in Italy also increased by 28 per­cent, reach­ing almost €150 million.

Trade groups fear the widespread implementation of the Nutri-Score nutrition label will dilute the messages about extra virgin olive oil’s health benefits and hurt Italian producers.

Italian extra virgin olive oil producers do not believe that the French-born Nutri-Score front-of-pack label (FOPL) helps European consumers understand the benefits of adhering to an extra virgin olive oil-based Mediterranean diet.

A reduced olive yield in Portugal will not hin­der the growth of its olive oil exports, accord­ing to the Portuguese Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Rural Development.
Lisbon expects exports to reach €600 mil­lion in 2020, up from €518 mil­lion in 2019 and €177 mil­lion in 2008, accord­ing to TrendEconomy, an inter­na­tional trade database.
Minister of Agriculture Maria do Céu Antunes said the trend demon­strates the growth of a ​“dynamic” sec­tor show­ing ​“great vitality.”

Changing  what we grow, cook, and eat is more imperative than ever if we want to have a chance to save the planet from the effects of climate change. Thankfully, we need to look no further than to the health, sustainability, and flavor principles of the Mediterranean Diet to adopt a road map to a better future.

Jordan opened up its 132 olive oil mills across the kingdom this week for the start of the 2020/21 harvesting season. An average season has been predicted by producers and mill owners, with olive oil production estimated at between 23,000 and 24,000 tons.

As the harvest gets underway in Sicily, three of Italy’s main agricultural organizations estimate this year’s olive oil harvest will be earlier and smaller than last year.

"The choice of many farmers to proceed with an early harvest in 2020 because of the climate conditions means priority must be given to the quality of the product, not to its quantity." David Granieri, president, Unaprol

Heavy rains, hail­storms and other extreme weather events have wreaked havoc in Italy over the past few weeks, caus­ing severe dam­age to olive trees, grape vines and a num­ber of other crops.
In the north of the coun­try, thou­sands of olive trees have been dam­aged by strong storms. Citing data pro­vided by the European Severe Weather Database (ESWD), the Italian farm­ing asso­ci­a­tion, Coldiretti, said that the coun­try has expe­ri­enced up to nine storms per day, severely impact­ing many farm­ing oper­a­tions across the coun­try.

Olive oil exporters in Tunisia hope to double exports of bottled olive oil in the next five years. The government plans to help by easing bureaucratic hurdles and promoting quality.

The news comes as Spain’s Food Information and Control Agency announced that production would be about 200,000 tons lower than initially estimated

Spanish bottled olive oil exports to the United States decreased by 80 percent in 2020 compared to 2019, according to Spain’s main agricultural cooperative, Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias.

Tariffs imposed in October 2019 by the Trump administration are blamed for the fall, which damaged the Spanish olive oil sector dramatically.

From charitable efforts to reversing desertification, olive trees and olive oil continue to play a fundamental role in Greek society.

Harvest chal­lenges, prices and inter­na­tional and domes­tic mar­kets tend to be the pre­vail­ing con­cerns in the Greek olive oil sec­tor.
However, there are plenty of other ways the olive tree plays a role in Greek soci­ety, out­side of busi­ness bound­aries.
In Crete, the ben­e­fi­cia­ries of the Heraklion social ser­vices pro­gram received free olive oil through a local gro­cery store.

Les exportations espagnoles d’huile d’olive en bouteille vers les États-Unis chutent de près de 81%.
En raison des tarifs douaniers, les exportations espagnoles d’huile d’olive en bouteille vers les États-Unis ont diminué de 80,9% par rapport aux volumes enregistrés en 2019, selon les données d’importation publiées par le Département américain du commerce.

In global terms, forecasts for Portugal point to a 25% decrease in olive production for olive oil production compared to the previous season, to 734,000 tonnes compared to 979,000 tonnes. a year earlier, according to the Portuguese National Institute of Statistics.

After a series of studies, researchers were able to confirm the content of a bottle found at an archaeological site near Mount Vesuvius was indeed olive oil. The discovery sheds light on the oil's molecular evolution over time.

Although the Greek government has declared a second COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, Greece’s olive harvest and olive oil production are continuing. Some seasonal labor shortages and mobility issues may cause minor delays, but several olive oil professionals remain optimistic that bottled Greek extra virgin olive oil will reach global consumers in good time.

This year’s olive crop in Greece is not expected to yield an immense quantity of olive oil, but producers in different parts of the country report that they are making very high quality early harvest extra virgin olive oil. Others who start their harvest later also predict very good quality. Any labor shortages due to the pandemic seem to be surmountable.