China Bets on Hubei to Lead the Next Phase of Olive Oil Development

Summary

Hubei, China is becom­ing a national hub for olive oil research and inno­va­tion, despite being the small­est olive oil-pro­duc­ing region in the coun­try. The region hosts olive groves and research cen­ters focus­ing on devel­op­ing uses for olive byprod­ucts, with plans to expand cul­ti­va­tion, milling capac­ity, and research efforts to improve prod­uct qual­ity and com­pet­i­tive­ness in the spe­cialty agri­cul­ture field.

This is the fourth in a series of reports on the evo­lu­tion of China’s olive oil indus­try.

YUNYANG, China – Despite being China’s small­est olive oil-pro­duc­ing region, Hubei is emerg­ing as a national hub for olive oil research and byprod­uct inno­va­tion.

The cen­tral province, east of Sichuan and on roughly the same lat­i­tude as Tunisia, hosts 125,000 mu (8,300 hectares) of olive groves — about six per­cent of China’s total.

Olive cul­ti­va­tion first suc­ceeded here in 1964, tak­ing root in the rolling hills and along the blue rivers and reser­voirs of the north­west­ern Shiyan dis­trict. Today, national and provin­cial offi­cials see the dis­trict as a strate­gic node for devel­op­ing China’s olive sec­tor.

Shiyan lies on the cen­tral route of the South – North Water Transfer Project, which diverts fresh­wa­ter 900 kilo­me­ters to Beijing and increas­ingly arid north­east­ern provinces. To pro­tect this vital water source, author­i­ties are pri­or­i­tiz­ing sus­tain­able devel­op­ment and dis­cour­ag­ing heavy indus­try.

Officials say expand­ing olive cul­ti­va­tion offered a life­line to the dis­trict in the mid-2010s after the com­ple­tion of the Danjiangkou reser­voir — the project’s cen­tral com­po­nent — which dis­placed about 345,000 peo­ple.

As in Longnan, the olive sec­tor is increas­ingly viewed as a key employer. Plans are under­way to plant new groves, expand milling capac­ity and open two olive research cen­ters.

One of these, the Hubei Olive Industry Technology Research Institute, stands atop a hill over­look­ing the Han River within the com­plex of Oriental Olive Garden, one of the region’s lead­ing pro­duc­ers.

The newly com­pleted three-story facil­ity fea­tures offices, meet­ing rooms and lab­o­ra­to­ries for cos­metic devel­op­ment and olive oil test­ing. While the labs remain empty for now, He Dongping, pres­i­dent of the oils and fats sec­tion of the Chinese Grain and Oils Association, plans to staff them with PhD can­di­dates from top agri­cul­tural uni­ver­si­ties in Wuhan.

The center’s mis­sion — dis­played promi­nently in its entry hall — includes devel­op­ing uses for olive leaves, pomace, waste­water and other byprod­ucts. Researchers also aim to build China’s third olive germplasm bank and address the chal­lenges of cul­ti­vat­ing olives in the region’s clay soils and humid cli­mate.

“Strengthening research on olive cul­ti­va­tion and olive oil pro­cess­ing can drive tech­no­log­i­cal advance­ment in agri­cul­ture, enhance plant­ing effi­ciency and prod­uct qual­ity, and boost China’s com­pet­i­tive­ness in the field of spe­cialty agri­cul­ture,” Dongping said.

Researchers from lead­ing Wuhan uni­ver­si­ties told Olive Oil Times they have already iden­ti­fied 300 com­po­nents in pomace and waste­water that may have med­i­c­i­nal, cos­metic and indus­trial value.

One med­i­cine derived from com­pounds in olive waste­water is under­go­ing clin­i­cal tri­als for its poten­tial to lower blood sugar lev­els. Another is in early test­ing for treat­ing liver dis­ease.

“We believe that tra­di­tional med­i­cine will replace indus­trial med­i­cine,” a for­mer finance min­istry offi­cial now involved in the sec­tor said. ​“We believe olives will bring a health­ier lifestyle, and demand for this will increase.”

Alongside extra vir­gin olive oils made from a mix of inter­na­tional and locally bred vari­eties, Oriental Olive Garden pro­duces olive leaf infu­sions, cos­met­ics and extracts derived from pomace and waste­water com­po­nents.

The district’s sec­ond research cen­ter will be devel­oped by Anyang Lake Olive Oil about 13 kilo­me­ters east of Oriental Olive Garden, on land between the Han River’s north­ern bank and the vil­lage of Anyang. The com­plex will include a hotel, a fac­tory to extract polyphe­nols from pomace, and a mod­ern mill.

The 4,500-square-meter mill — designed to process five met­ric tons of olives per hour — is expected to be com­pleted ahead of the 2026/27 har­vest and will form the core of the multi-mil­lion-dol­lar invest­ment.

Although Anyang Lake Olive Oil oper­ates a two-ton-per-hour mill in Zhongyi, Sichuan, it cur­rently sends olives grown in Shiyan to a nearby facil­ity for pro­cess­ing.

The com­pany is also acquir­ing land to plant 10,000 mu (670 hectares) of olives across Hubei and Sichuan. It now man­ages 4,800 mu (320 hectares) of Leccino, Arbosana and Coratina in Shiyan, and 4,000 mu (270 hectares) of Coratina in Sichuan.

Once the new groves mature and the mill is oper­a­tional, the com­pany expects to pro­duce about 50 tons of olive oil annu­ally.

However, sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges remain. Densely planted trees are vul­ner­a­ble to the olive fruit fly and fun­gal dis­eases. Steep ter­rain makes mech­a­niza­tion dif­fi­cult and labor expen­sive.

Marketing also presents hur­dles. While sales in Shiyan and Hubei are slowly ris­ing, many con­sumers remain unfa­mil­iar with olive oil and often pre­fer cheaper imported prod­ucts.

Anyang Lake’s 500-mil­li­liter blend sells for 180 Renminbi (€22), while its early-har­vest Coratina mono­va­ri­etal — the only one of its kind in China, the com­pany says — costs 288 Renminbi (€35).

To close this gap, the com­pany invests heav­ily in con­sumer edu­ca­tion, high­light­ing olive oil’s health ben­e­fits on social media to reach younger audi­ences and build long-term demand.

Despite the obsta­cles, Dongping praised the efforts of pro­duc­ers such as Oriental Olive Garden and Anyang Lake Olive Oil. He believes China is enter­ing a new phase — one increas­ingly defined by qual­ity and brand devel­op­ment.

“The indus­try is now shift­ing from past ​‘price-based com­pe­ti­tion’ toward ​‘qual­ity-dri­ven’ and ​‘brand-dri­ven’ com­pe­ti­tion, lay­ing a solid foun­da­tion for its long-term, sus­tain­able and high-qual­ity devel­op­ment,” he said.