Five-Year Project Delivers Infrastructure and Training for Algerian Olive Farmers

The PASA Program to develop a mod­ern and sus­tain­able olive farm­ing and olive oil pro­duc­tion sec­tor in Algeria has con­cluded.

According to Paul Lompech, the program’s head of com­mu­ni­ca­tion, PASA estab­lished a net­work of resources, pro­vid­ing small farm­ers and millers access to the lat­est knowl­edge and best prac­tices for grow­ing and milling olives over the past five years.

The European Union-backed project, which received fund­ing from French and German enti­ties, also estab­lished a sec­tor-spe­cific lab­o­ra­tory, pub­lished research on endemic Algerian olive vari­eties and pre­pared mar­ket research to aid farm­ers and millers in devel­op­ing brands.

“The PASA Program has sig­nif­i­cantly con­tributed to lay­ing the foun­da­tions for a sub­stan­tial devel­op­ment of the olive sec­tor,” Lompech told Olive Oil Times.

He high­lighted the estab­lish­ment of Algeria’s first olive oil-spe­cific accred­ited lab­o­ra­tory, run by the Technical Institute of Arboriculture, Fruit and Vines (ITAFV), as a water­shed moment for the project and the olive sec­tor.

“Talks are ongo­ing with the International Olive Council, as this lab­o­ra­tory is soon des­tined to be offi­cially rec­og­nized by the IOC,” Lompech said.

“It is a big step for us,” he added. ​“For instance, pro­duc­ers now have a reli­able place in Algeria for olive oil analy­sis. So they will no longer need to send sam­ples abroad, such as to France, as they did before.”

The lab­o­ra­tory also hosts ded­i­cated train­ing ses­sions about olive oil analy­sis. ​“On top of that, a net­work of six demon­stra­tive pilot sites was estab­lished, two for each of the three provinces involved,” Lompech said.

“These groves allow all inter­ested par­ties to directly observe good agri­cul­tural prac­tices in the field, such as prun­ing tech­niques, irri­ga­tion or other improve­ments to boost the health and pro­duc­tiv­ity of their groves,” he explained.

At the instruc­tional sites, trained experts offer step-by-step guides to grow­ers inter­ested in adopt­ing a new approach to farm­ing and olive milling, includ­ing sus­tain­abil­ity and envi­ron­men­tal aspects.

While olive grow­ing is in the DNA of most fam­i­lies resid­ing in the north of the coun­try, a mod­ern sci­en­tific approach was needed for the sec­tor to develop fur­ther.

“A bet­ter and broader knowl­edge about the local olive her­itage is key to the sec­tor’s future,” Lompech said.

ITAFV, with direct sup­port from PASA, has also pub­lished the offi­cial cat­a­log of the 36 Algerian olive cul­ti­vars that have been rec­og­nized and reg­is­tered. Nineteen more are in the process of being reg­is­tered.

The insti­tute listed agri­cul­tural and com­mer­cial char­ac­ter­is­tics for each cul­ti­var, includ­ing all mor­pho­log­i­cal, phe­no­log­i­cal, mol­e­c­u­lar and organolep­tic traits.

“This goes along with sev­eral research ini­tia­tives con­ducted by PASA, from con­sumer stud­ies to water and envi­ron­men­tal research, mar­ket­ing and pack­ag­ing on the Algerian mar­ket,” Lompech said.

“We focused on research to pro­vide a basic bib­li­o­graphic base for peo­ple to under­stand the olive ecosys­tem as a whole,” he added.

Other research was directed towards improv­ing the capac­ity of olive oil mills and agri­cul­tural prac­tices such as irri­ga­tion and prun­ing.

Dozens of books and other infor­ma­tive mate­ri­als were pub­lished, list­ing all the most rel­e­vant aspects of olive grow­ing, from sus­tain­able prac­tices to the health ben­e­fits of extra vir­gin olive oil.

As part of the buildup of such knowl­edge, PASA pro­duced an advi­sory sup­port sys­tem aimed at farm­ers and other inter­ested par­ties. ​“As of today, we have 60 olive expert advi­sors in the field trained by the PASA advi­sory sup­port sys­tem,” Lompech said.

“These are pro­fes­sion­als who can spread the cul­ture of qual­ity pro­duc­tion along with the knowl­edge needed to achieve such qual­ity,” he added. ​“They can also train oth­ers, fur­ther spread­ing a new mod­ern approach.”

The pro­gram focused on Béjaïa, Bouïra, and Tizi Ouzou, the three wilayas (provinces) of the Soummam Valley, where the ear­li­est evi­dence of olive grow­ing dates back more than two mil­len­nia.

“As a whole, in 2023, they orga­nized more than 400 train­ing events in the area involv­ing more than 3,000 peo­ple, and that is just the begin­ning,” Lompech said.

“People trained in these courses in the ter­ri­tory become vec­tors of new knowl­edge, so the impact [of such activ­i­ties] could be expo­nen­tial,” he added.

The goal is for this knowl­edge to fil­ter down to the many small olive grow­ers that pop­u­late the region. By com­ing together, farm­ers can access the invest­ments needed to trig­ger a new, more mod­ern way of pro­duc­ing olive oil and the income such an approach can pro­vide.

The pro­gram financed dozens of inno­v­a­tive olive devel­op­ment projects pre­sented by local pro­duc­ers.

“A few coop­er­a­tives were cre­ated thanks to the pro­gram, and we can expect more to see the light in the future,” Lompech said.

“That was also part of our mar­ket-ori­ented research, aimed at hav­ing all actors fully under­stand the national reg­u­la­tions related to olive oil pro­duc­tion as well as the dynam­ics of the inter­na­tional mar­ket, the expec­ta­tions of con­sumers, and so forth,” he added.

According to Lompech, many areas of the olive sec­tor still need to grow, and much remains to be done.

“Think of the exports,” he said. ​“Nowadays, Algerian olive oil is mostly sold to inter­na­tional buy­ers in bulk, and they rebrand it and then sell it to other mar­kets.”

“That means there is space for some strong Algerian brands to enter the inter­na­tional mar­ket,” Lombech added. ​“We now have a first lead­ing exporter group as the whole ecosys­tem around the olive world moves to another level of pro­duc­tion and cul­ture.”

He pre­dicted that about half of local olive oil pro­duc­tion – which the IOC esti­mates will reach 93,000 tons in the 2023/24 crop year, in line with the five-year aver­age – will use the tools and adopt the best prac­tices pro­vided by the pro­gram.

“We have big hopes in the next five or ten years for the new indus­try to grow stronger,” Lompech said. ​“Today’s dynam­ics on the inter­na­tional mar­ket rep­re­sent an oppor­tu­nity, and the olive oil sec­tor is now grow­ing quickly, as the price is still increas­ing and demand stays high.”

“I think the coun­try is posi­tioned to become a sig­nif­i­cant player on the inter­na­tional olive oil mar­ket, with its own brand and qual­ity pro­duc­tion,” Lompech con­cluded.