International News/Trends

When Nepal’s first olive farm opened to produce extra-virgin oil from trees planted on the slopes of the Himalayas, the sceptics said it couldn’t be done. But 17 years later Himalaya Plantations – the country’s only producer – expects to turn its first profit, marking an unlikely success the company hopes may one day help boost agriculture in one of the world’s poorest nations. “All the experts told us we were mad, that it would never work because we didn’t have the Mediterranean conditions,” said Hartmut Bauder, the company’s German founder.

American olive oil producers are drafting a federal marketing order that would set higher quality standards, redefine grades and require new testing of all olive oil produced there. If they can get the order adopted by the USDA, industry sources say, domestic producers will push for the rules to apply to imports too. The effort is the latest in a series of initiatives intended to level the playing field with olive oil importers who have long enjoyed an absence of quality enforcement in the world’s biggest market. The result has been an extra virgin grade with no real meaning, and a public so accustomed to rancid olive oil, they actually prefer it in taste tests.

The Pakistan Agricultural Research Council (PARC) and Pakistan Italian Debt-for-Development Swap Agreement (PIDSA) have signed an agreement for execution of the project Promotion of olive cultivation for economic development and poverty alleviation, costing Rs382 million. The project aims to increase the local production of edible oil in order to reduce the imports and save foreign exchange. Olive plantation will generate direct and indirect job opportunities contributing to poverty alleviation, making use of waste, marginal and forestlands and sub-mountainous areas.

The Italian Chamber of Commerce is also promoting local participation at Cibus 2012, an annual international Food Exhibition in Parma, Italy. Cibus is the key event of the Italian agri-food sector, providing a platform to enable companies committed to ‘Made in Italy’ foods to meet major distributors, importers and professionals in domestic and foreign markets. Fiere di Parma is offering packages for Australian operators to participate at Cibus, with three options available. For further information, contact Antonio Rosato at [email protected] or 08 8232 4022 by 4 April 2012.

Encouraged by strong numbers in recent years, Chile has asked Andalusia to lend technological and economic support to help expand its emerging olive oil sector and establish a “strategic business alliance” between the two entities. Sergio Romero Pizarro, the Chilean Ambassador to Spain, represented the South American country in a series of talks with Mayor of Jaén José E. Fernández de Moya and industry representatives. Pizarro used the occasion to invite businesses and entrepreneurs from the Andalusian capital to invest in Chile’s growing sector.

Armed with pincers, a small tractor grabs the trunk of an olive tree in southern Spain and shakes loose its fruit, which will be pressed in a few hours. Olive oil production in the Andalusia region reigns supreme, but farmers are beginning to worry about growing competition from Morocco. Spanish producers’ concerns focus on a European Union agricultural free trade accord signed in February with the north African country. “The agreement with Morocco is a step towards ruin for Spanish olive oil producers,” said farmer Lope Ruiz Lopez.

Coldiretti president Sergio Marini stated that ”today most bottles of oil on sale are from foreign olives, without consumers being aware of it.” In his address to Vinitaly’s conference on olive oil, Marini pointed out that in 2011 the imports of foreign olive oil reached an all-time high of 594,000 tonnes , thus surpassing domestic production which dropped to 483,000 tonnes. According to a study by the Italian farmers association Coldiretti, Italy is the top olive oil importer in the world.