Rising Adversity in Olive Oil Sector Gives Rise to New ‘Olive Council’ in Córdoba

The evolv­ing nature of the olive oil mar­ket, per­sis­tently low prices, and the con­se­quences of the Covid-19 pan­demic have fueled the for­ma­tion of a new orga­ni­za­tion in the Spanish province of Córdoba.

The Consejo del Olivar de Córdoba (Córdoba Olive Council) is open to mem­bers of the entire sec­tor, from local admin­is­tra­tive enti­ties and small farm­ers to uni­ver­sity researchers, oil mills, bot­tling com­pa­nies and pro­fes­sional asso­ci­a­tions, among oth­ers.

The Diputación de Córdoba, the province’s local gov­ern­ing author­ity, recently hosted the first meet­ing of the new orga­ni­za­tion. The province’s pres­i­dent said its goal would be to develop a series of long-term strate­gies and revival plans for one of the main dri­vers of the local econ­omy.

“Its found­ing has been an absolute neces­sity, since we are aware of the rel­e­vance of olives for the whole province, being the main source of devel­op­ment and income in many munic­i­pal­i­ties,” Antonio Ruiz, pres­i­dent of the province, said.

After Jaén, Córdoba is the sec­ond-largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing province in Andalusia, and all of Spain.

The goal of the new orga­ni­za­tion is also to offer a tool for seam­less com­mu­ni­ca­tion among the numer­ous dif­fer­ent par­tic­i­pants in the olive oil pro­duc­tion chain.

“We believe the coun­cil will include all those that have some­thing to say, hav­ing as goals the eco­nomic devel­op­ment of the sec­tor and the pro­mo­tion of the olive-grow­ing cul­ture, while facil­i­tat­ing dia­logue among farm­ers asso­ci­a­tions, coop­er­a­tives, oil mills and munic­i­pal author­i­ties,” Ruiz said dur­ing his open­ing state­ment at the meet­ing.

So far, the Córdoba Olive Council already has a num­ber of promi­nent mem­bers from the sec­tor, includ­ing all of Spain’s major farm­ers’ asso­ci­a­tions, the Spanish Association of Olive Municipalities (AEMO), rep­re­sen­ta­tives from four local Protected Designation of Origin farms (Baena, Lucena, Montoro-Adamuz and Priego de Córdoba) and the University of Córdoba.

Each of these mem­bers will be respon­si­ble for tak­ing on one of the six main areas of inter­ven­tion that the coun­cil has been tasked to solve.

The Association of the Young Farmers (Asaja) will coor­di­nate the activ­i­ties to improve the inno­va­tion and com­pe­ti­tion of provin­cial olive oils and AEMO will work on the moun­tain olive grove project, which sup­ports and pro­motes sev­eral of the province’s PDO olive oil pro­duc­ers.

Meanwhile, the Union of Small Farmers (UPA) will spear­head issues per­tain­ing to the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy and the Coordinator of Agriculture and Livestock Organizations (COAG) will focus on olive oil prices and the over­all mar­ket.

The University of Córdoba will focus its efforts on improv­ing olive oil qual­ity, while local oil mills are tasked with pro­mot­ing the province’s olive oil and pre­serv­ing its olive oil cul­ture.

“This mul­ti­fac­eted com­po­si­tion will not bring con­tro­versy because the new entity is not a tool for dis­agree­ments, it is an insti­tu­tion for pro­mot­ing dia­logue and con­sen­sus, and it will not be polit­i­cally exploited,” Ruiz said.

“We need to stick together and with the olive sec­tor because we all under­stand its rel­e­vance,” he added. ​“We all must be a part of it and per­ceive it like an instru­ment to together develop and defend our olives and our olive oils.”

• El Día de Córdoba
• Monturque