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The International Olive Council chose November 26 for a cel­e­bra­tion of the olive tree, the ​“uni­ver­sal sym­bol of peace and har­mony, which has now spread to the five con­ti­nents and con­tributes to sus­tain­able eco­nomic and social devel­op­ment and the preser­va­tion of nat­ural resources,” the Madrid orga­ni­za­tion said.

Between 2014 and 2016, the land area in the world planted with olive trees have increased by 10 per­cent: from 10 mil­lion hectares (24.7M acres) to 11 mil­lion hectares (27.1M acres), of which well over 8 mil­lion hectares (19.7M acres) are not irri­gated.

A cer­e­mony was held at the head­quar­ters of the IOC, dur­ing which the exec­u­tive direc­tor, Abdellatif Ghedira, read an offi­cial dec­la­ra­tion on the impor­tance of olive trees, their health ben­e­fits and their envi­ron­men­tal rel­e­vance.

This was also the sub­ject of a short film pre­pared for the COP22 con­fer­ence: ​‘Olive oil, the liq­uid gold help­ing to reduce green­house gas emis­sions.’

“As an agent in com­bat­ing global warm­ing, olive grow­ing has a pos­i­tive car­bon bal­ance, seques­ter­ing more CO2 in its growth cycle than the green­house gasses emit­ted in the pro­duc­tion process of vir­gin and extra vir­gin olive,” Ghedira noted.

“Olive oil and table olives ​“are a proven source of nutri­tion and health, key ingre­di­ents in the Mediterranean diet and increas­ingly appre­ci­ated by the world’s most renowned chefs.”

Furthermore, ​“the action of their many ther­a­peu­tic prop­er­ties in pre­vent­ing cer­tain dis­eases is now widely rec­og­nized,” as the IOC declared dur­ing the event.

The cer­e­mony included a trib­ute to Shimon Lavee, who twice held office as the IOC chair­per­son and who con­tributed con­sid­er­ably to the activ­i­ties of the organ­i­sa­tion and to the devel­op­ment of the sec­tor.

With the idea to set up an annual cel­e­bra­tion, the IOC pub­lished in September a call for pro­pos­als for grants to co-finance the series of simul­ta­ne­ous events which have been sched­uled by mem­ber coun­tries (the United States is not a mem­ber of the IOC).

• In Italy, the World Olive Day has been cel­e­brated in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Unaprol with a full day of study on the devel­op­ment of the olive oil qual­ity sys­tems and eco­nomic and envi­ron­men­tal aspects of the appel­la­tion of ori­gin pro­ce­dures. The event coin­cided with the twen­ti­eth anniver­sary of the first five Protected Designations of Origin (PDO) for extra vir­gin olive oils at the European level: Aprutino pescarese, Brisighella, Canino, Collina di Brindisi and Sabina.
• In Algeria, the cel­e­bra­tion of WOD 2016 was inau­gu­rated by the min­is­ter of agri­cul­ture and included a demon­stra­tion of the oper­a­tion of a crush­ing unit and a tast­ing of the oil pro­duced, that was fol­lowed by olive tree plant­i­ngs.
• In Egypt, a sem­i­nar on olive grow­ing and the envi­ron­ment and the health ben­e­fits of olive prod­ucts took place in col­lab­o­ra­tion with the University of Alexandria.
• In Spain, a work­shop for for­eign stu­dents was held at the University of Jaén includ­ing a talk on olive oil, with a tast­ing ses­sion and cook­ing demon­stra­tions.
• In Greece, the Kalamata Olive Oil Taste Laboratory orga­nized sen­sory analy­sis ses­sions and a sem­i­nar on the health ben­e­fits of olive oil, organolep­tic qual­ity stan­dards, and qual­ity man­age­ment.
• In Morocco, the fifth edi­tion of the International Forum on Olive Oil was held in Meknès, with a con­fer­ence that high­lighted the value of the olive tree bio­mass as a new and renew­able energy source.
• In Tunisia, the event focused on the exten­sion of the olive grow­ing area in the coun­try and the sus­tain­abil­ity of the sec­tor. One thou­sand olive trees were planted in nurs­eries.
• In Turkey, after a visit to an ancient mill, par­tic­i­pants took part in the har­vest of mon­u­men­tal olive trees and oil extrac­tion at a press kept at the Museum of Olive Oil.
• Portugal cel­e­brated World Olive Day with the pres­i­dent of the Casa do Azeite, Luís Folque and the min­is­ter of agri­cul­ture, forestry and rural devel­op­ment, Luís Manuel Capoulas Santos.

• International Olive Council