Tunisian duty-free quote increase and Italian protest. Much ado for nothing

Last Monday the Trade Comitee of European Parliament backed a proposal of increase by 35.000 tons the duty-free yearly quota of olive oil imports from Tunisia for a two years period, in order to help the full recovery of the economy of a country which is struggling with terrorism, developing the Tunisian olive oil sector, the agricultural main export of the country.

This decision was followed by the harsh criticism of several  Italian producers associations. The Minister of Agriculture Martina highlighted his strong opposition to any further increase of the duty-free quota. On Italian television channels debates about this “scandalous” attack to Made in Italy is now broadcast countinously and the implicit connection between fraud, adulteration and olive oil import from Tunisia is like a base on which the debate is built on.

Beautiful trees in Tunisian countryside

According to data of International Olive Oil Council Italy’s olive oil production reached 222.000 tons in harvest season 2014-2015 and the internal consumption was of 521.000 tons, the lowest by far of last ten years and it has exported around 208.000 tons.

These data clearly express that Italy needs  to import olive oil. A duty-free import quota is a good opportunity for Italy and for Tunisia too. If the politicians criticizing this move by European Parliament were so focused on studying measures to face fraud with half of the zeal with which they criticize the increase of the quota, Italian olive oil will have not the bad reputation it has currently.

Olive oil is the solution to Egypt's edible oil shortage?

Khaled Hanafi, Minister of  Supply, announced yesterday Egypt will import 89.000 tons of edible oil, adding that this quantity and the residual stock will fulfill the national demand for a period of six months. The population growth is now one of the cause of the continuous shortage of edible oil that Minister of supply is trying to face. The per capita consumption of edible oil and greases is of about 13 kg per year.

The oils to be purchased are soybean oil (61 tons) and sunflower oil (28 tons). These imported oils probably will fill the gap left by the increased consumption and population but these kind of purchases could represent a  short term solution but Egyptian politicians must be determined to think about a long term strategy in order to solve radically the issue.

A camel near Giza Pyramids

According to some declarations of the Ministry of Agriculture of the Arab Republic of Egypt, the president Al-Sisi has expressed his strong personal commitment to support a project for the plantation of trees over a surface of 1 million of feddan, more than 400,000 hectares in different governorates from Sinai to Wadi Natrun. This project could represent  a big blow against unemployment and could enhance the socio-economic conditions of many rural areas while giving to local populations healthy food.

Indeed olive oil is universally considered an oil with high nutritional value, considerably superior to other edible oil mentioned before.  Olive oil is a natural product, it is extracted only by mechanical extraction and no external chemical additive is added in the process.

Probably, for its climate and its history, Egypt’s soil could be a good location for olive cultivation. Olive trees are widespread in the North Western, especially in oasis,  and North Eastern area like in Sinai or El-Arish, allowing Egypt to be the third producer of table olives in the world, with a yearly output of 400.000 tons circa .

Furthermore olive cultivation in Egypt is a very remote activity, known since the time of the Pharaos. Due to the nature of the olive tree adaptable and resilient to the dryness, Egyptian’s sole must be considered as an ideal habitat where to grow olives.

Sources

El Badil
Ahram
Agri Ahram

Last updates from my beautiful olive grove in Southern Italy

Some pictures I took last week of the new "very good" harvest.
Check more on my Twitter or Olea Mediterranea Facebook page

Soon I will give you more details about this harvest.

From Santorini to your table: domatokeftedes

Once upon a time, in a quiet summer night Santorini, I've tried for the first times "domatokeftedes". I was astonished by this simple but rich taste of  this easy to make, poor, traditional Greek recipe.
This is my favourite version and I would like to share with you:

300 gr of  stale bread

150 gr of tomatoes

a tea spoon of flour

half of a red big onion

a tea spoon of cumin

one table spoon of oregano

salt  and pepper to taste

extra-virgin olive oil

Slice the tomatoes and let them drain for about 1 hour. Then wet the stale bread under running water and let it stand.
In the meanwhile chop finely the onion and mix it in a big bowl with tomatoes, the bread, the flour, add cumin, salt, pepper and oregano. Divide the paste in small pieces

Fry it in a frying pot till domatokeftedes turn to brown, dry them and serve hot or cold.

Turkey's outlook before 2015-2016 harvest

Turkey produced 190 tons of olive oil  during 2014/2015 season, ranking between the biggest producer countries. The Near Eastern country hasn't yet reached the peak of the expected production, while the expectation for 2015-2016 are high, but it can easily afford to face the internal request of a country where consumption hardly goes beyond 2kg per capita. The price growth  surely doesn't helped to increase the number of consumers.

The last one was one of the worst harvest in the history, the olive oil drought and the stock drain caused an unpredictable growth of the price of oil in the global market. Turkey wasn't an exception, as the price of extra-virgin olive oil staying still steady at 17 TL, according to the data from Edremit Ticaret Borsa. With the prices' rise the appetite for speculation increased in the country and starting  from last February Turkey has imported around 3.000 ton of olive oil, signately from Tunisia, following the report of Marmarabirlik Chairman during an official meeting at the Ministry of Economy, where they told the situation of the olive and olive oil sector in Turkey.

Recurring to the import is not strategically congruous with the policy of one of the key players in the sector. Turkey is betting since some years on olive cultivation and has been recently focusing towards new markets, such as India. Turkey has a surface of about 850.000 hectars of olive plantations and is looking after to enhance its potential in the sector not only internally but also abroad. Currently Turkish market share on international markets still remains not significant, according to Kadri Gündeş, chief of Olive and Olive Oil promotion Comitee. Turkey is exporting mainly to Saudi Arabia, USA and Japan but export quote decreased last season.

Another big challenge for Turkish insitutions is the growth  internal consumption, promoting the healthy qualities of the golden product to an audience that traditionally is not used to use olive oil, being the Turkish cuisine, especially the so-colled Anatolian, still strongly linked to the ancestral tradition of the use of animal fats in the preparation of the courses. 

Meze, a classic of Aegean cuisine

The rise of olive oil import could be considered as a speculative move made by traders in this special conditions. Politicians should be hard in discouraging this behaviour and to stregthen the rules to enforce the local production. Turkey has the ambitious goal to reach 650.000 tons of olive oil production   in 2023, the year of 100 year after the foundation of the Turkish Republic and to confirm the motto of the hero who founded it, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who affirmed: "The economy of the nation is based on the agriculture."

Sources:

ZMO

Sabah

Akhisarliyiz

Hurriyet

Sabah

Flasmedya

Medina. A trip to the heart of Mediterranean agriculture

A young French couple seven months travel through the Mediterranean to learn new and traditional agricultural techniques by working and living close to organic growers. For a future quality food production and eco-tourism in Corsica.

Suddenly, while I was searching sources for my last article about Corsica Olive Oil, my attention was caught by  the story of Johann and Marine from Ajaccio who decided, last November, to pack their baggage and to travel around the Mediterranean for seven months.

Medina. Agritourisme en Méditerranée

What pushed them on the road is the aim to explore different cultures and to approach different agricultural practices, working and  learning from a production and a commercial perspective, to enrich their knowledge and to make a good use of it after their return back home  to develop the production of quality food and to boost the green tourism in their home land.


“Medina”, a term that means city in Arabic but is used with the meaning of “old city” in Maghreb area, is the title they choose for their adventure. They consider  all the Mediterranean basin as a unique 2,5 million square kilometers Medina where one can find artisans, farmers, producers proposing their products, selected by quality and origin.
Their trip  touched  France, Spain, Morocco, Egypt, Cyprus, Turkey, Greece, Albania and so on to reach Italy and then again Corsica. They travelled slowly from one place to another, to one country to another,  they took ferries, buses, lifts and used airplane only to cover big distances.

Johann and Marine joined the WWOF, World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, system to travel. They were hosted by organic growers who opened the door of their farms and shared with them traditional and modern techniques of cultivation.

When olive harvest time came, they found themselves in Andalusia and collected olives from the trees, they brought harvested olives to local mill and tasted the fresh extracted delicious oil. A visit in Pollença region, in Balearic Islands, was also the occasion to better know the issues olive growers experience in this land, living from tourism revenues but that proudly produces a Denomination of Origin labeled olive oil. The young couple heard about the fears of local olive farmers , afraid of Xylella Fastidiosa , this terrible bacteria that is destroying hectares of olive groves in Apulia and now represents a real threat for all Mediterranean lands planted with olive trees.

To follow the trip of this young couple, look  you can check their updates and watch their pictures and videos over their Facebook page or follow their trip itinerary on http://ontheroad.travelmap.fr/medina-itineraire-previsionnel

A new country producer of olive oil: Armenia

Armenia entered the list of 47 countries producing olive oil last year,  but probably the history of olive tree in Armenian land isn’t so recent, as this small country is often considered as one of the places of origin of olive tree.

Currently the use of olive oil is not so common for Armenians but the great number of people of Middle eastern origin living there, coming especially from Syria recently because of the ongoing conflicts, made olive oil consumption quite wider in the Near-Asian country. Nowadays almost the totality of olives and olive oil for internal consumption is imported, but in Meghri district, close to the Iranian border several trials were attempted by few pioneers.
For long years none believed that olive tree could survive the low temperatures of Armenian winters and give fruits. But Karo Karapetyan didn’t agree with this opinion and went on planting 7ha of olive groves. In 2003 he planted more than 7.000 Ascolana and Sevillano variety trees. He was very patient and, despite the loss of numerous trees caused by the chill of Armenian winter, temperatures could reach -30° C,  and by the hail, he finally succeeded in making his first harvest in 2010. Each tree is reported to have a yield of about 20-30 kg of olives. This brave farmer found not easy to market his products initially but, shortly after, he started packing and selling his olives.
This farmer is strongly convinced that olive is an adaptable tree and for this reason he believes it could grow up and give fruits even in Armenia.  Probably this Southern area of the country is a suitable comfort-zone for olive growing but some luck and not very cold winters are essentials to achieve a good harvest.
The enthusiasm of this man and his ability to go through difficulties  is a beautiful signal of the laboriousness and willingness of people of this country and maybe a signal of hope for a future as a producer of olive oil for Armenia.

Sources

Asbarez-  http://asbarez.com/110702/the-olive-tree-and-armenia/

Yerkir Media-  http://www.yerkirmedia.am/?act=news&lan=en&id=8081