Mediterranean: 10 Mln hectars olive trees. A fair for Top Quality Oil

The Mediterranean landscape and the olive-tree have always been combined: according to the data of the associations in this sector. There are about 800.000.000 of olive trees decorating the lands around the “common sea”, an extension of about 10 mln hectars dedicated to olive culture. It is just like Holland, Belgium and Switzerland were a unique wide olive field. Besides there are more than thirty thousand working olive mills in the Mediterranean countries, from Spain to Jordan: this turns into a European production reaching 2.182.200 tons oil in the period 2006-2007; these are completed by the African and Asian production of the countries overlooking the Mediterranean sea (reaching 2.834.500 tons). Europe is the most important producer but also consumer, absorbing about 70% of the total amount. This theme will be discussed during the next “Medoliva”, the first fair of the Mediterranean olive-tree, that is going to take place at Arezzo in the centre of Tuscany, one of the fundamental producers of olive oil. Italy, Spain (guest star and partner with the Region Andalusia and the Province of Jaen), Greece, France, Croatia, Palestine, Israel, Malta, Cyprus, Slovenia, Morocco, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Turkey, Libyan, Syria are the guests attending this meeting with their oil-labels. “This event- Vincenzo Ceccarelli (President of the Province of Arezzo) has explained – guarantees innovation, tradition and quality of the extra virgin olive oil. This show is likely to become a point of reference for all the people working in this field. But it is supposed to be a firm point even for the consumers that are able to know the top production of the Mediterranean area through “Med oliva”. A club of the best extra virgin of the Mediterranean area will be founded, a real “Goth” of excellent products selected by international tasters. But Medoliva will offer also the tech-shop, dedicated to researches and innovations for the whole filiera (establishments, cultivations picking transformations and wastes); the area of the most recent machines and equipment; the space “cooking for olive oil”; the section “terre dell’olio” (lands of the oil); the space for cosmetics, beyond meetings and didactic lectures. The protagonists will probably be Italy and Spain, the two leaders in this field. There will probably be about 30 Spanish labels (Spain has 40% of the world productions over € 2 mld), all the most important lands: from Extramadura to Mancha, from Andalusia to Catalonia. The Italian group will be numerous: about 65 producers will represent almost all the regions producing extra virgin. From an economic point of you the Italian productions reaches the same level as Spain (€ 2 mln); there are 225.000.000 olive trees grown along our peninsula and 5300 olive mills spread all over the country.