Morocco May Benefit From World Olive Oil Shortage

When the rain doesn't fall in Spain, olive-oil buyers brace for higher prices. But bad news for consumers may be good news for Morocco with increased demand for Moroccan olive oil

The dreadful 12 months for olives in several major producing countries has led to last year being labelled the “black year” for the industry and to the doubling of the bulk cost of olive oil in some areas.

A drought in Spain, the world's No. 1 producer of olive oil, has prompted fears of widespread shortages that could send the market spiralling upward. This year's crop from some Spanish farms could be down 40% from 2013, according to oilseeds forecasting agency Oil World. Very dry weather in the key olive-producing region of Andalusia in May and June ravaged the olive trees during their flowering period, when they need moisture for the fruit to ripen correctly.

"The drought in Spain and its impact on the olive market is potentially very significant," said Lamine Lahouasnia, head of packaged food at Euromonitor International.  "It very likely that we'll see rising consumer prices ."

Unusual weather and a proliferation of insects and bacterial blight have devastated the harvest in several countries. Analysts have been predicting a bad year for olive oil since the summer, after it became clear that hot late spring weather in Spain was going to have a key impact on autumn harvests. Other producers have been coming in with equally poor results, adding to the woes of the industry Europe-wide.

In Italy a bacteria strain known as Xylella fastidiosa threatens to increase olive oil costs by as much as 40 percent. Olive growers from the Puglia region of Italy say that the only way to stop its spread is to burn the infected trees.

The olive fly that thrived on a cold, wet summer this year has devastated the annual olive harvest in Tuscany and Umbria. In addition, unusually large flocks of starlings have been reported as further destroying the fruits in parts of southern Italy, leading to calls for a cull.

“This is the worst year in memory,” said Pietro Sandali, head of the Italian olive growers consortium, Unaprol.

In Greece, the olive output has been more stable, but the other smaller producing countries may not pick up the strain: Morocco and Tunisia have also suffered from some bad weather, while Syria, which claims to be the birthplace of the olive tree and which has 74 million trees, has been affected by the civil war.

Global consumption of olive oil has increased steadily over the past two decades to the current level of 2.3 million tons a year, partly because of growing demand from developing countries including China and India, according to the International Olive Council.

Another aspect of the situation that worries industry insiders is that less oil and higher demand means an increased likelihood of olive oil fraud. Authentication tests conducted by the University of California at Davis revealed that many major brands of so-called olive oil contained cheap fillers like rapeseed (canola) oil that are cheaper and less healthy.

Moroccan Olive plantations outside of Fez

On the supply side, growing demand and higher prices is encouraging investment in production in other countries on the Mediterranean, such as Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey.

Total production in Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey has grown by almost a third over the past decade, and world exports of olive oil have risen by a fifth since 2007, according to the US Department of Agriculture.

Meanwhile, savvy residents of Fez are stocking up by making the trip to Moulay Idriss Zerhoun where some of Morocco's best olive oil is available at very reasonable prices.

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Moroccan Olives - all you need to know!

The fact that the International Olive Oil Council met for four days in Essaouira may not sound important to most people. Yet, consider for a moment the value of olives to the Moroccan economy. According to the Moroccan newspaper L’Economiste, the olive industry already occupies roughly 700,000 hectares of Moroccan land and generates some 100,000 permanent jobs. The Moroccan Green Plan which outlines steps to modernize the olive oil sector will raise the production of olive oil in Morocco to some 340,000 tons yearly.

Olives are Morocco's most important fruit crop. They generate an annual production of 40 000 t of olive oil, 100 000 t of table olives and 180 000 t of dregs. In an effort to offset a national deficit in edible oil, Morocco has adopted an ambitious National Olive Growing Plan which, notably, provides for doubling the olive-tree production area.

Most of the nation's olive oil is produced on traditional units called "maâsras". Since these units have a low crushing capacity, the oil produced is of rather poor quality, the extraction provides a light yield and the resulting dregs, rather than being converted into something useful, are simply dumped and become a threat to the environment. New projects aim to improve the efficiency of existing technologies and methods, enhance the quality of olive oil, produce high-protein feed for livestock and develop a production technology for high value-added secondary metabolites to be used in various industries.

Researchers at Hassan II Agricultural and Veterinary Institute (Institut agronomique et vétérinaire Hassan II, IAV) conducted studies among olive growers to determine the optimum time for harvesting olives for the crushing industry. According to the results, olives should be harvested at the semi-black or black stage when they have a fairly high content of oil and phenolic compounds.

In collaboration with the growers, the teams established two mobile units for crushing olives and extracting oil. The mobile units were made available to cooperatives and also served for demonstration purposes. Several producers restructured their operations on the basis of the proposed model. However, this technology is beyond the reach of most traditional olive crushers (maasras), who must rely on animal traction and are dependent on family labor (men, women and children). The team therefore encouraged small crushers to improve their operations by stripping the leaves and washing the olives, reducing the time the olives spend in storage, storing the olives in thin layers, avoiding multiple crushings, and improving hygienic conditions on the site. These efforts had a significant impact on the quality of the olive oil, which was reflected in the price. Some crushers were able to sell their entire output to export-oriented industrial units.

But, back to the International Olive meeting - Olive Oil Times Contributor Daniel Williams | Reports from Barceloma

The International Olive Oil Council met this past week in Essaouira, Morocco for its 25th Extraordinary Reunion. During the four-day encounter, significant members of the international olive oil community including industry experts, producers, consumers, and agricultural scientists participated in lively debates surrounding the present value of olive oil to assess current prices as they stand against today’s consumer profiles.

This past Tuesday, June 22nd the economic committee met to share information about the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 harvests and discussed a real need to modify current internal and external prices throughout the world. The committee agreed to enact any necessary changes or price modifications in their upcoming November reunion. The economic committee also met in a group seminar setting that discussed issues surrounding the inclusion of an olive oil’s country or region of origin on bottle labels.

On Wednesday, the 23rd the specialized technical committees of advertising and finance presented a list of promotional activities which it has been actively developing since its meeting in Madrid last November. In a similar vein, various countries have already followed suit, launching major advertising campaigns to promote olive oil at home and abroad.

The following day, June 24th the presidents of 18 delegations represented by the IOOC met to debate the function of the position of Executive Secretary. Most importantly, these delegates participated in an assessment of the surrounding Moroccan region that hosted the event and discussed plans to further develop the olive oil industry in North Africa.

Moroccan olive harvest approaches

Moulay Idriss is famous for its olive oil, and this week The View from Fez visited the town to take a look at the olive press.

Up until the 1920s, there was no electricity in Moulay Idriss, and the whole town was lit with olive oil lamps. The production of olive oil remains a hugely important industry. On the edge of the town there's a community olive press, run by Amin Zalagi. Farmers take their olives to the complex and leave them in a bay to be pressed. It's all strictly monitored so that the press owner knows which olives belong to which farmer.

Amin Zalagi, owner of the press, explains what happens to the olives

At the moment, one month before the harvest is due to begin, the complex is being revamped and smartened up in preparation. Bays have been painted, a new floor is being laid, the presses have been taken apart for cleaning and the underground vats are being scoured.

In any one day, this complex, one of many in the town, can process 14 tonnes of olives to produce some 2500 litres of olive oil. It's best to press the fruit on the day it's harvested, so it's quite a pressurized business.

Nothing is wasted. The stones are sold to the Fez potteries to fuel their kilns, and the pulp left over after pressing is fed to animals.

The Moroccan picholine olive

The average yield is around 20 litres of olive per tree per year. It takes about 5kg of olives to make a litre of oil. If you've ever wondered what the difference is between 'extra virgin' and just plain ol' 'virgin', the answer lies in the time of harvesting. Olives picked at the beginning of the season, in November and December, produce extra virgin olive oil from the green or slightly pink fruit. This oil has a low acidity and the yield is 16 litres per 100 kg of olives.

Later on in the season, in January and February, the yield is higher, about 22 litres per 100kg, as the fruit is riper. However, the acidity is higher and therefore it's known as virgin olive oil.

Hemant Kanakia from Washington DC was with us on our trip. He'd been doing some cooking classes in Fez and came along to taste the olive oil.

'It's the first time I've ever tried olive oil from the press', said Hemant, dipping his beautifully fresh bread into the bowl. 'It's the best I've ever had', he smiled.

For more information on trips to the olive press, especially during the coming harvest, contact Gail Leonard at Fez Food.

Into the Rif - on The View from Fez Photo Journal.

The day The View from Fez received the invitation to make a journey into the mountains near Taza, the sun was shining and the temperature just perfect. It sounded wonderful. However, the next morning when we left from the taxi station at Bab Ftouh, the rain began to sprinkle down. An hour later, as we wove up a mountain pass it began to bucket down. Finally about 90 kilometres from Fez we turned off the main road and went north until we arrived at a tiny village near Beni-Frassen.

It was market day and because of the rain storm the café was packed with farmers and townsfolk who had settled down to watch The Flight of the Phoenix on a huge plasma TV. The irony of watching such a film while being rained on was lost on nobody. Eventually the rain eased enough for us to exit through the back of the café. Here a surprise awaited us. A donkey bus station is probably the best way of describing it - donkeys and mules for hire.

Although the rain was settling in and the temperature dropping, we set out - unfortunately with no idea of just how far we had to walk. A stroll through an olive grove and to a house that had been described as "large", sounded okay. Our companions, Driss, Msefer and Thami were in good spirits... at least for a while.

Once we emerged from the olive grove it became clear that the local mud was something special. It had the unhelpful ability to ball in larger and larger amounts beneath your shoes until you were wobbling on "platform-heels" that weighted several kilos each. Thami's instant response, despite the now biting cold, was to remove his shoes.

A young boy passing on a donkey stopped and watched Thami in amazement. He then continued on his way, but kept glancing back as if to confirm the crazy thing he had seen was actually real.


Thami lasted quite a long time on foot - which is not to say we had made huge progress. Going was slow and the climb getting steeper by the moment. From time to time we would round a corner and a house would come into view, accompanied by the thought that "at last, this must be it" - it was not. Not then and not for several hours.

Even though we were still within site of our departure point, Thami's feet needed a bit of a rest.

Once Thami transferred to a mule and looked considerably happier

You can see more photos and more of the story on The View from Fez Photo Journal



Tags: Moroccan Morocco Fes, Maghreb news

Morocco's Volubilia named world best olive oil

Volubilia Olive oil from the Meknès-Tafilalet region has been named "The World Best Olive Oil Extra-virgin of the Year", said a communiqué from the National School of Agriculture in Meknès (138Km east of Rabat).

The prize is given by the Italian Guide Extravergine 2006, which awards the world best certified quality olive oils, said the document, noting that the tasting panel had selected 459 olive oils among 3,000 samples from Europe, North Africa, East of the Mediterranean, South Africa and Latin America.

The Guide also set up a top 15 of world olive oils.

Volubilia olive carries more than 200 years of tradition, as can be testified still today by Historical landmark "Volubilis" a few miles away from where this oil is produced.

Volubilis was a Roman settlement constructed on what was probably a Carthaginian city, dating from 3rd century BC. Volubilis was a central administrative city for this part of Roman Africa, responsible for the grain producing in this fertile region, and exports to Rome.

The historical site include remains of the olive oil presses that made Volubilis wealthy. Olive trees grow in the nearby hills - and in profusion throughout much of Morocco - and olives and olive oil are important to the Moroccan diet and the country's economy.

Located at the steps of Middle Atlas –800 meters high–, the olive trees benefit from pure air, rich soil and a temperate and mild climate which confer to Moroccan oil its typical taste. The oil is obtained from best selection of the olives, hand-picked and pressed immediately by a modern temperature controlled system.

Tags: Morocco, Fès, Meknes, news