Producers Seek PDO in Castile y León

Producers in the cen­tral province of Ávila are actively work­ing to obtain a Protected Designation of Origin cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for their extra vir­gin olive oils.

Located west of the Community of Madrid, in the cen­ter of Spain, five local coop­er­a­tives and three oil mills have already come together to form the Association of Olive Producers of the South of Ávila.

Combined, the pro­duc­ers of the new asso­ci­a­tion are respon­si­ble for about 75 per­cent of the olive oil pro­duc­tion in the autonomous com­mu­nity of Castile y León, accord­ing to the pres­i­dent of the province of Ávila, Carlos García.

García recently sat down with Pedro Gómez, the pres­i­dent of the newly-formed asso­ci­a­tion, to sign a deal that will help pro­mote local oils. Obtaining a PDO cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for ​‘Aceite del Tiétar’ – the name of the river val­ley in which the pro­duc­ers are mostly located – is at the top of the agenda.

There are cur­rently 30 geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tors for olive oils in nine autonomous com­mu­ni­ties in Spain. The most recently approved was the Aceite de Jaén PGI (Protected Geographical Indication), which was reg­is­tered in May.

At a press con­fer­ence unveil­ing the announce­ment, García said olive oil pro­duc­ers could fol­low in the steps of the vint­ners who obtained the ​‘Vinos de Cebreros’ PDO in 2019.

“There were very few peo­ple who bet on that denom­i­na­tion, but that work today makes it pos­si­ble for 17 winer­ies to be part of it,” García said. ​“And that is pre­cisely what we are pur­su­ing with this agree­ment.”

As the 2020 olive har­vest con­tin­ues to unfold in Spain, Gómez said that pro­duc­ers in Ávila are expect­ing a lower yield than usual this year. He cited the lack of rain at key moments dur­ing the devel­op­ment of the fruits as one of the rea­sons for the decline.

For Gómez, this is another exam­ple of how the agree­ment signed by the asso­ci­a­tion and local gov­ern­ment will help pro­duc­ers. Along with seek­ing out the geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tor, the agree­ment will also help pro­fes­sion­al­ize the 6,000 grow­ers in the region.

“This agree­ment is a very impor­tant push for us when it comes to mak­ing our­selves known, being on social net­works and hav­ing appro­pri­ate mar­ket­ing for the devel­op­ment and sale of our prod­uct,” Gómez said. ​“It is also an impor­tant step for the pro­fes­sion­al­iza­tion of our farm­ers, through train­ing courses, which are already being devel­oped on top­ics such as phy­tosan­i­tary treat­ments, pests and prun­ing.”

• Agropopular
• Diario de Castilla y León