China’s olive oil imports surge on EU purchases, council says

China’s imports of olive oil surged about 38% percent in the 2011-12 marketing year, compared with a year earlier, the International Olive Council said. China purchased 45,058 tons of olive oil and olive pomace oils, the IOC said today in a report on its website. About 60% of those purchases were shipped from Spain, 24% from Italy and 6% from Greece and 84% of China’s imports were virgin olive oil.