International News/Trends

Record olive oil production in Spain – already at 1.56 million tons by the end of February – leads the March market newsletter from the International Olive Council (IOC). Quoting figures from the Agencia para el Aceite de Oliva (Olive Oil Agency), the IOC highlights that this is well above the previous record of 1.41 million tons in 2003/04. The table olive harvest, meanwhile, is down 14% on last season, with just 519,310 tons so far netted.

Olive oil prices fell to a nine- year low on record production in Spain and rising stocks, combined with lower domestic consumption, Oil World reported. Spanish olive-oil production in 2011-12 is forecast to rise to 1.56 million metric tons from 1.38 million tons a year earlier, the Hamburg-based oilseed researcher wrote in a report. “Producers are now claiming that in many cases prices have fallen below production costs,” Oil World wrote. “Domestic consumption of olive oil apparently declined so far this season as a result of the economic crisis and increased availability of attractively priced sunflower oil.”

A new olive oil lobby group is urgently preparing a position paper to protect its members from threatended subsidy cuts by the European Commission. At its meeting in Barcelona on last Tuesday, the Forum of European Olive Regions agreed to complete the so-called white paper before the end of June in order to “defend itself in Brussels” as negotiations heat up over the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) structure and budget for 2014-2020. Among changes proposed by the EC is paying all olive farmers a flat rate per hectare rather than paying some according to production history – a change which would see France and Spain lose the most.

On April 10 Chile Oliva, the Chilean Association of Growers and Producers of Olives and Olive Oil, launches its first consumer campaign in the U.S., which asks the question “How Virgin is Your Extra Virgin?” The mission of the campaign is to expand the position of Chilean extra virgin olive oil into new markets, with a focus on New York, Miami and Boston. The campaign was created by Vivaldi Partners Group, a global brand strategy and marketing consulting firm.

A recent study under the title Greece 10 years ahead aspires to set the foundations for the economic recovery of the teetering country. The study, produced by McKinsey management consulting firm in Athens, proposes a ‘National Growth Model’ that prioritizes what has to be done and in which sectors of the economy. Tourism and energy are considered key sectors. Equally, agriculture is not a small cog in a large wheel but rather a big player that will yield substantial income and create job positions. When the term ‘agriculture’ is used in Greece, one thing certainly comes in mind: olives and olive oil.

Pompeian, Inc., with headquarters in Baltimore, MD, is the first olive oil manufacturer to attain the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service Quality Monitoring Product logo for its extra virgin and extra virgin organic olive oils. The Quality Monitoring Program verifies the purity and quality of olive oil through rigorous USDA product testing and review of production processes, and participating companies agree to allow the USDA to conduct unannounced visits to review and inspect quality assurance records, test product samples and verify labels on an ongoing basis.

Officials in China have arrested more than 100 people in a crackdown on a new type of ‘gutter oil’ made using animal processing waste including rotten animal fat.

We can be grateful our oil fraud issues aren’t this bad, at least – Ed.

They have seen generations pass, the world change, and survived droughts and cold spells for a thousand years. Yet, just as they did in the Middle Ages, Spain‘s millennium-old olive trees continue giving humans their green gold – a highly prized olive oil variety, which is now becoming popular as far away as Asia and the Americas. Spain is rediscovering its ancient olive trees, which had been endangered by the advance of urbanization and a search for more productive olive tree varieties. The country‘s largest concentration of the ancient trees can be found in the north-eastern community of Taula del Senia – a grouping of 27 municipalities – where they number more than 4,600 in an area of 1,100 square kilometres.