`Officials Outline China’s Olive Oil Future at Hubei Conference - Olive Oil Times
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Officials Outline China’s Olive Oil Future at Hubei Conference

By Daniel Dawson
Nov. 11, 2025 17:15 UTC
Summary Summary

The arti­cle dis­cusses the devel­op­ment of China’s olive oil indus­try, focus­ing on the poten­tial for growth and chal­lenges faced by the sec­tor. Chinese offi­cials and indus­try experts high­lighted the need for research, inno­va­tion, and invest­ment to meet con­sumer expec­ta­tions, increase domes­tic pro­duc­tion, and address tech­no­log­i­cal and agri­cul­tural chal­lenges. The sec­tor aims to lever­age China’s strengths in tech­nol­ogy and research to trans­form the indus­try and com­pete with for­eign pro­duc­ers while meet­ing the needs of grow­ers, millers, and sell­ers.

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

YUNYANG, China – Chinese offi­cials struck an opti­mistic tone at an olive indus­try con­fer­ence in Yunyang, which hosted more than 200 politi­cians, Communist Party offi­cials, local and inter­na­tional researchers and jour­nal­ists.

The dis­trict, located in north­west­ern Hubei province about 930 kilo­me­ters south­west of Beijing, is at the cen­ter of a strate­gic effort in China to pro­mote olive cul­ti­va­tion and olive oil pro­duc­tion as part of the country’s broader food secu­rity ini­tia­tive.

Our agri­cul­ture sys­tem is trans­form­ing from a tra­di­tional to a next-gen­er­a­tion one, but in our indus­try, this is not the case. If we don’t start on this road, we will fall behind.- Yu Ning, olive sec­tion vice pres­i­dent, China’s Forestry Economics Association

Yunyang was one of a few places in China where olive cul­ti­va­tion took root after Albanian leader Enver Hoxha gifted the coun­try 10,000 seedlings in 1964.

A two-day conference in Yunyang, China brought together local politicians, researchers and olive oil producers to discuss the sector.

However, Chinese and inter­na­tional researchers iden­ti­fied and dis­cussed the hur­dles that still face the sec­tor, rang­ing from agro­nomic prac­tices to con­sumer habits.

According to Ender Gündüz, the for­mer head of the International Olive Council’s econ­omy and pro­mo­tion unit, who has spent decades study­ing the Chinese olive oil mar­ket, the coun­try boasts ​“huge poten­tial” as con­sumers become more aware of the health ben­e­fits of olive oil. 

See Also:Postira Hosts International Olive Oil Symposium Highlighting Regional Excellence

He esti­mates there are 250 mil­lion poten­tial con­sumers, pri­mar­ily con­cen­trated in urban areas, in the world’s sec­ond most pop­u­lous coun­try. However, he called on local pro­duc­ers and exporters to meet the expec­ta­tions of Chinese con­sumers for the prod­uct.

As is cus­tom­ary in China, the con­fer­ence fol­lowed a care­fully coor­di­nated pro­to­col, includ­ing praise for the accom­plish­ments already made and the announce­ment of ambi­tious tar­gets mov­ing for­ward.

Liu Shuren, an advi­sor to the Chinese Forestry Industry Federation, under whose aus­pices olive cul­ti­va­tion falls, praised the progress made in vari­ety breed­ing research, point­ing to 11 new Chinese vari­eties tai­lored to the cli­mate and local taste pref­er­ences.

“The olive indus­try should always pri­or­i­tize research and inno­va­tion, includ­ing the incor­po­ra­tion of olive oil tourism and poverty alle­vi­a­tion,” he added.

Shuren fur­ther empha­sized the need for the sector’s con­tin­ued momen­tum, includ­ing invest­ment from both the pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tors, as well as coher­ent gov­ern­ment pol­icy.

Striking a more bull­ish note, Liu Shenli, the pres­i­dent of the Chinese Association of Business Leaders in the agri­cul­ture indus­try, said the domes­tic edi­ble oil indus­try, includ­ing olive oil, could fol­low the path of wind and solar in the coun­try.

International Energy Agency data show that elec­tric­ity pro­duc­tion from wind and solar in China increased by more than 8,000 per­cent from 2000 to 2023, spurred on by a pre­vi­ous strate­gic objec­tive to reduce the country’s reliance on fos­sil fuel imports.

Shenli added that 30 per­cent of domes­tic edi­ble oil con­sump­tion meets domes­tic demand, with a strate­gic goal announced for the next Five-Year Plan to increase this total.

According to He Dongping, pres­i­dent of the oils and fats sec­tion of the Chinese Grain and Oils Association, China con­sumed 40 mil­lion tons of edi­ble oil in 2024, equiv­a­lent to approx­i­mately 29 kilo­grams per capita.

He Dongping has spent decades working to promote China’s olive oil industry, including the establishment of national standards.

“If each Chinese per­son were to con­sume 0.5 kilo­grams of olive oil per annum, this would be a tremen­dous fig­ure,” added Wang Ruiyuan, the chair­man of the expert com­mit­tee of the China Grain and Oil Industry Association.

He called on China’s world-lead­ing indus­trial sec­tor to meet the needs of its olive oil pro­duc­ers, includ­ing man­u­fac­tur­ing olive milling equip­ment domes­ti­cally to com­pete with well-known brands mainly sourced from Italy and Turkey, and uti­liz­ing its mas­sive net­work of researchers to pro­vide the nec­es­sary knowl­edge base.

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While China, which imports 78 per­cent of the olive oil it con­sumes, will be reliant on for­eign olive oil for the fore­see­able future, Dongping indi­cated that local pro­duc­ers have the oppor­tu­nity to pro­duce oils tai­lored to the tastes of the Chinese con­sumer.

“By opti­miz­ing cul­ti­va­tion, har­vest­ing, and press­ing processes, we aim to pro­duce olive oil that bet­ter suits Chinese-style cook­ing — capa­ble of with­stand­ing light stir-fry­ing while enhanc­ing the fla­vor of cold dishes,” he told Olive Oil Times. 

“This approach not only aligns with local culi­nary habits but also achieves prod­uct dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion, mak­ing ​‘local fla­vor’ a dis­tinc­tive and com­pelling sell­ing point,” Dongping added.

While no China watcher will be sur­prised at the effu­sive praise for the sector’s progress and gov­ern­ment efforts to pro­mote olive cul­ti­va­tion, Li Peiwu from the Chinese Academy of Science’s edi­ble oil cul­ti­va­tion research insti­tute high­lighted the chal­lenges fac­ing the sec­tor.

“The core sup­port of the olive seedling indus­try needs to be strength­ened,” he said. ​“The spe­cial seedling selec­tion and breed­ing pro­mo­tion sys­tem suit­able for the local envi­ron­ment, high yield and high qual­ity is not per­fect.”

“The plant­ing and cul­ti­va­tion man­age­ment tech­nol­ogy needs to be upgraded urgently, stan­dard­ized, accu­rate and intel­li­gent,” Peiwu added. ​“The inte­gra­tion of the indus­trial value chain needs to be improved… In the future, the olive indus­try urgently needs to strengthen sci­en­tific and tech­no­log­i­cal break­throughs and break through indus­trial bot­tle­necks.”

Yu Ning told attendees that China must make the most of its late starter advantage.

Yu Ning, vice pres­i­dent of the olive sec­tion of China’s Forestry Economics Association, said the Chinese olive oil sec­tor has the poten­tial to ben­e­fit from the late starter advan­tage, pro­vided it finds a unique point of lever­age to achieve this. 

He advised the con­fer­ence to cap­i­tal­ize on the suc­cesses and lessons learned from so-called Old World pro­duc­ers, specif­i­cally adopt­ing a ​“com­pre­hen­sive indus­trial sys­tem” as its point of lever­age while main­tain­ing a bal­ance among the needs of grow­ers, millers, and sell­ers. 

Ning cited China’s dom­i­nance in the field of applied indus­trial robot­ics as one poten­tial source of lever­age that could lower pro­duc­tion costs while main­tain­ing qual­ity. 

He added that research and devel­op­ment, another area of strength in China, would be nec­es­sary to deter­mine the best place to start.

“Our agri­cul­ture sys­tem is trans­form­ing from a tra­di­tional to a next-gen­er­a­tion one, but in our indus­try, this is not the case,” he said. ​“If we don’t start on this road, we will fall behind.”

Dongping fur­ther high­lighted the role of olive farm­ers and olive oil pro­duc­ers in achiev­ing this trans­for­ma­tion.

“Farmers and millers are not merely pas­sive recip­i­ents of research out­comes; they are our ​‘front­line sci­en­tists’ and indis­pens­able part­ners in research, play­ing an irre­place­able role,” he said.

“Every new plant­ing tech­nique, improved seedling vari­ety, or piece of pro­cess­ing equip­ment must be tested in real pro­duc­tion set­tings,” Dongping con­cluded. ​“Farmers and millers pro­vide us with vast liv­ing lab­o­ra­to­ries, and their feed­back directly deter­mines whether a tech­nol­ogy can be effec­tively pro­moted across the indus­try.”

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