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The climate and geography in Spain are ideal for the cultivation of olives and therefore also olive oil. About 75% of the country’s total production occurs in the Andalusian region in the south of Spain. In total, just over three million tons of olive oil is produced globally.
At a steady 1,3 million tons per annum on average over the last few years, Spain is responsible for more than a third of the world’s production.
For the top three olive oil-producing countries, Spain, Italy and Morocco, olive oil is a major export product and source of revenue.
What makes agriculture interesting in Spain, especially in the south of Spain, is the fact that most producers are part of a farmers’ association, making the industry well organised.
The Dcoop Group is a grade 2 co-operative that looks after the interests of a number of smaller individual co-operatives.
These co-operatives are owned by 75 000 crop farmers and stock breeders, all operating under the Dcoop umbrella.
“Dcoop is recognised as a Priority Associative Organisation and it is committed to using the efforts of everyone to bring greater profitability to its members by marketing their products in the best way possible and lowering costs,” Esteban Carneros, head of corporative relations at Dcoop, said during the media visit.
“Our main goal is to generate wealth and employment in the rural areas,” he added.
With more than 100 member co-operatives that deliver olives to the group, Dcoop is the world’s largest single producer of olive oil, with an annual average production of 225 000t of virgin olive oil, equivalent to 7% of world production.
Dcoop has a number of oil, wine and table olive bottling and packaging plants across the area, and olive farmers deliver and process their products at one of these. Dcoop either markets the oil in bulk or does its own bottling and packaging after processing. The group boasts a strong export business with branches in the US and China.
According to Rafael Sánchez de Puerta, general director at Dcoop Group, the farmers and associated co-operatives are distributed throughout Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha, Castilla y León, the Basque Country, Extremadura, the Valencian community and Madrid. De Puerta pointed out that the farmers mostly cultivated the Picual olive variety in Jaén, Córdoba and Granada, followed by Hojiblanca in Malaga, Córdoba, Seville and Granada.
“We also grow other varieties such as Cornicabra, Manzanilla, Verdial, Lechin and Arbequina. We are therefore able to offer just the type of oil that the customer wants.”
As well as its own brands, Dcoop owns 50% of Mercaoleo, the Dcoop olive oil business unit that markets mostly bottled oils. Mercaoleo has bottling plants in Antequera near Malaga.
Dcoop also produces table olives and with an average production of over 86 000t, is the world’s largest single producer of table olives.
The world production is around 2,6 million tons, with the total production in Spain amounting to 550 000t.
The olive growers deliver their fruit to the member co-operatives to be processed either as black olives or cured in the Seville style. Dcoop is the top producer of Aloreña olives, the only variety in Spain with a Denomination of Origin. The group’s other dominant table olive variety is Hojiblanca, produced in central Andalusia.
They do, however, also process Manzanilla Sevillana, Aloreña and Gordal varieties. The olives are prepared in different ways: black, green, whole, pitted, stuffed, in wedges or in slices.
In addition to being the biggest olive oil producer in the world, Dcoop also produces wine on 40 000ha of vineyards throughout Spain and is involved in the nut and cereal sectors as well as in livestock breeding.
Farming on the slopes of Sierra Morena
The Pedroches Valley comprises about 3 500km2 and is renowned for the production of high-quality Iberian products, especially the ham (jamón) derived from Iberian pigs, and olives.
The valley has been known through centuries for peasant farming activities. Against the backdrop of the Sierra Morena (Morena Mountains) north of Córdoba, approximately 800 families produce organic olive oil from about 8 000ha of olive trees growing against the slopes.
It is estimated that about one million olive trees are growing here. The whole region is responsible for producing 30% of the world’s olive oil.
The olive growers in these mountain areas are not free from economic pressures. Their production costs are high, and they have to mitigate droughts and other consequences of climate change.
Like much of Andalusia, on these slopes in the Pedroches Valley, olives have been farmed as a monoculture for over 50 years.
Inevitably, farmers are now struggling with soil degradation, erosion and even desertification. Something had to be done, the farmers realised. They believe that it is up to them to restore the biodiversity in the total area.
Olivarera de Los Pedroches Co-operative, or the Los Pedroches Olive Co-operative (Olipe), partnered with the North American multinational company Alltech Crop Science. Together they committed to developing a five-year research plan focusing on olive grove production in the area ranging from soil analysis to the commercial positioning of Olipe.
According to Alltech Spain, the aim is to support farmers to preserve the 200-year-old trees and the area’s sustainable development. The focus will be on knowledge transfer and social sustainability in the region.
Producing olives is not only an economic agricultural activity, but also part of the culture and the way of life of the farmers in this area. Sustainable production is thus of the utmost importance to keep the families on the land.
According to Francisco Galvez, project manager for almond and olive crops at Alltech Crop Science for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, the work they do with the farmers reinforces the company’s commitment to the environment, promoting innovation to improve the profitability and sustainability of the olive groves.
“With improved management practices, we can improve soil fertility and increase production yields and oil quality. Alltech supports farmers to improve the yield of their crops, protect soils, differentiate the product of Olipe’s olive groves and enhance its social impact.”
Alltech Crop Science, through Ideagro, has committed to cover all the costs of the production monitoring, as well as to acquire batches of oil from the co-operative for international distribution.
According to Jesús Garcia-Arévalo Rojas, a director at Olipe, the agreement will enhance the sustainability of olive production in the mountain olive groves of Los Pedroches. He said they were following a multidisciplinary strategy, including research into the state of the soils, the characteristics of trees, as well as focusing on marketing of virgin olive oils produced from the olives in the Pozoblanco-Córdoba area.
Through research, experimentation and innovative practices, they aim to improve tree productivity while preserving soil health.
Sustainable production
Rojas explained that they were also using the organic compost produced from olive mill waste to improve the soil. Compost is produced using substandard products, and biomass from the olive stones is used as energy for boilers.
Olipe is investing in the benefits emanating from the project and ensures that training and knowledge transfer actions continue. Rojas said the hope was that apart from the agricultural benefits, social sustainability would be ensured by retaining the population, youth and talent in the region.
The area is rich in biodiversity, with a great variety of indigenous plants. The preservation of some of the land and the biodiversity of the environment is therefore an important focus area for both Alltech and the farmers in the area.
They believe that the fauna and flora in the area are compatible with sustainable olive production, and they perform biological pest control.
The best time to collect the olives is as soon as they start to change colour, which is at the beginning of autumn (October/November in Spain). But with the olive groves that are typical of the Sierra with its sheer slopes making it difficult for machine harvesting, most of the harvesting is done by hand with labour coming from Romania, Morocco and Algeria.
Currently, labour is one of their biggest headaches, according to farmers in the area. Because of the difficult circumstances that these labourers have to work in, it is becoming more difficult each year to attract enough labourers.
The olives are delivered to the Olivarera Los Pedroches co-operative in Pozoblanco, which forms an economic and social hub. There are various associates that pull together to form the co-operative that is overseen by a Rector’s Council. The council comprises farmers chosen by the general assembly.
Olipe also partnered with Aimplas, a Spanish plastics technology centre, in the Go-oliva project that aims to create an eco-friendly and compostable material for packaging.
Because the country produces such vast amounts of olive oil, there is also a significant amount of olive-pit debris, a waste product of the olive pressing process. In the project they are researching ways in which they can recycle the waste and transform it into a sustainable new material.
This initiative will not only add value to what would otherwise be waste, but also contributes to the development of sustainable packaging solutions for the industry.
Oliplast is designed to be biodegradable and compostable, and it can be used to manufacture packaging materials for oil products and cosmetic creams made with olive oil.
Email Dcoop Group at [email protected].
