Olive Council Convenes in Rome for 105th Session

The Italian author­i­ties hosted the 105^th ses­sion of the International Olive Council (IOC) at the head­quar­ters of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations in Rome on May 23^rd, 24^th and 25^th.

The Italian Deputy Minister of Agriculture inau­gu­rated the session’s activ­i­ties. In atten­dance were rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the pre­sid­ing nation of Algeria, in addi­tion to del­e­gates from most of the IOC’s mem­ber coun­tries, includ­ing Argentina, Iran, Turkey and Uruguay.

Representatives of the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) and the Japan Oilseed Processors Association (JOPA) also attended the 105^th ses­sion in an obser­va­tory role due to their close work with the IOC.

Following the inau­gu­ra­tion, the deputy min­is­ter of agri­cul­tural pol­icy, Andrea Olivero, gave wel­com­ing and open­ing remarks. Upon his con­clu­sion, Loriana Abbruzzetti, chair­per­son of the Pandolea Association, pre­sented her organization’s work. Abbruzzetti took the oppor­tu­nity to entreaty the IOC to develop an asso­ci­a­tion of female olive oil pro­duc­ers to aid in spread­ing fur­ther infor­ma­tion, aware­ness and pro­mo­tion in pro­ducer coun­tries.

The IOC’s var­i­ous spe­cial­ized com­mit­tees, com­prised of Administrative and Financial Affairs, Economic and Promotion, and Chemistry and Standardization con­ducted meet­ings dur­ing the ses­sion.

The Administrative and Financial Affairs Committee con­vened with the Council of Members to assess the sta­tus of ​“rat­i­fi­ca­tions, accep­tances, approvals and pro­vi­sional appli­ca­tions or acces­sion to the International Agreement on Olive Oil and Table Olives (2015), which, accord­ing to a state­ment pro­vided by the IOC ​“is aimed at facil­i­tat­ing the par­tic­i­pa­tion of importer coun­tries.”

While Jordan, Palestine and Tunisia are the only par­tic­i­pants that have cur­rently achieved rat­i­fi­ca­tion based on records kept by the United Nations, the com­mit­tee did note that Turkey and Egypt were final­iz­ing the process and that the con­sumer coun­tries of Brazil, China, and Japan have all shown inter­est in becom­ing mem­bers of the IOC.

Regarding Economics and Promotion, Mustafa Septici and Jaime Lillo, mem­bers of the IOC’s exec­u­tive sec­re­tariat, pro­vided the Council of Members with updated infor­ma­tion on ​“pro­duc­tion, con­sump­tion and exports trends” preva­lent to the indus­try over the past few years.

The exec­u­tive sec­re­tariat also focused on the inter­na­tional study on con­sumer behav­ior, the har­mo­niza­tion of cus­toms codes for main olive oil cat­e­gories, and the IOC’s mar­ket newslet­ter and web­site. The Council of Members were informed of var­i­ous pro­mo­tional efforts tak­ing place across the globe, includ­ing a cam­paign in Japan, which began in July 2015.

The Japanese cam­paign will con­tinue into 2017 sub­ject to bud­getary avail­abil­ity. Additionally, the Council dis­cussed the recent media tour for Japanese jour­nal­ists in Turkey and the orga­ni­za­tion of activ­i­ties related to the cel­e­bra­tion of World Olive Day. Grants for mem­ber nations’ cel­e­bra­tion of the hol­i­day will be awarded on November 26, 2017.

Following the suc­cess of the Japanese cam­paign, mem­bers of the Executive Secretariat includ­ing the deputy exec­u­tive direc­tor for tech­ni­cal, pro­mo­tion and eco­nomic affairs, the head of chem­istry and stan­dard set­ting unit and the head of the pro­mo­tion unit will take advan­tage of their trip to New York for the annual meet­ing of the North American Olive Oil Association by meet­ing with mem­bers of the American admin­is­tra­tion in Washington D.C. and olive oil pro­duc­ers in California.

These dis­cus­sions are intended to ​“strengthen the col­lab­o­ra­tion between the US olive indus­try and the IOC with a view to launch­ing a pro­mo­tion cam­paign of olive oil and table olive con­sump­tion,” accord­ing to a state­ment pro­vided to Olive Oil Times by the IOC.

In their dis­cus­sions of olive oil chem­istry and stan­dard­iza­tion, the Council noted activ­i­ties that have been car­ried out since the 104^th ses­sion in test­ing meth­ods, the orga­ni­za­tion of the 17^th edi­tion of the IOC Mario Solinas Quality Award 2017, har­mo­niz­ing stan­dards, and qual­ity con­trol mea­sures for olive oils and olive-pomace oils sold on import.

As Members were informed of the devel­op­ment of col­lab­o­ra­tive stan­dard­iza­tion meth­ods amongst test­ing lab­o­ra­to­ries and tast­ing pan­els, they also took note of the recently imple­mented recog­ni­tion sys­tem for lab­o­ra­to­ries. The sys­tem incor­po­rates three options, includ­ing type A: Quality, type B: Purity, and type C: Contaminants, and opens the award of recog­ni­tions to all coun­tries.

Turning to olive grow­ing, olive oil tech­nol­ogy and envi­ron­men­tal con­cerns, Members exam­ined progress on sev­eral projects, par­tic­u­larly recent stud­ies explor­ing Xyllela fas­tidiosa, com­pleted with the col­lab­o­ra­tion of CIHEAM.

Using this infor­ma­tion, the Council pro­posed a sem­i­nar on the dis­ease, which first appeared in the Mediterranean in 2013 when the European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization claims it began infect­ing olive groves in Puglia, Italy.

Furthermore, the Council dis­cussed the cre­ation of pilot demon­stra­tion nurs­eries meant to enhance genetic olive resources and another project to explore the envi­ron­men­tal value that olive grow­ing can pro­vide the world. Members also agreed to con­tinue pro­vid­ing numer­ous PhD schol­ar­ships.

On Wednesday, May 24^th, del­e­gates and the Executive Secretariat attended a din­ner orga­nized by the new Italian group Filiera Olivicola Olearia Italiana (FOOI). The orga­ni­za­tion brings together the pre­dom­i­nant olive oil and table olive indus­try groups that are based in Italy.

The Council of Members’ ple­nary sit­ting took place on May 25^th and con­tin­ued into May 26^th. During the sit­ting, the Council adopted ten deci­sions that were sub­mit­ted by the Executive Secretariat.

After the open­ing cer­e­mony, in which two rep­re­sen­ta­tives for Italian and UN agri­cul­tural offi­cials high­lighted the IOC’s impor­tance within the olive indus­try, the chair­per­son of JOPA signed the IOC Agreement for qual­ity con­trol of prod­ucts sold on import mar­kets. During the ses­sion, the Members reaf­firmed their com­mit­ment to var­i­ous points of inter­est dis­cussed through­out the ses­sion, such as stud­ies on Xylella fas­tidiosa, har­mo­niza­tion of codes and increased pro­mo­tion to poten­tial con­sumers world­wide.

The ple­nary sit­ting con­cluded with a dec­la­ra­tion on the recog­ni­tion of train­ing cen­ters on olive grow­ing and olive oil.

On Saturday, May 27^th, del­e­ga­tions attended a tech­ni­cal visit to the oil mills in Italy’s Sabine region. The ses­sion con­cluded as the Executive Secretariat thanked the Italian author­i­ties for gra­ciously host­ing, and thanked the FAO and the FOOI for wel­com­ing the Members and orga­niz­ing the meet­ings.

Moving for­ward, the IOC recently released a vacancy notice for open­ings in the posts of head of olive grow­ing, Olive Oil Technology and Environment unit, inter­nal comp­trol­ler and head of the Observatory and Information Systems depart­ment within the exec­u­tive sec­re­tariat.

• European and Mediterranean Plant Protection Organization


• International Olive Council