Recent News

The Interprofessional Organization of Spanish Olive Oil has teamed up with the ship­ping com­pany Baleària in an effort to bol­ster tourism in the after­math of the COVID-19 pan­demic and pro­mote Spain’s strug­gling olive oil sector.

At the port of Denia, in the south­east­ern province of Alicante, the pres­i­dents of both orga­ni­za­tions unveiled the newly-dec­o­rated high-speed ferry, Cecilia Payne, which now has the Olive Oil World Tour cam­paign logo promi­nently embla­zoned on its side.

“We want trav­el­ers to know that we have a gas­tro­nomic gem that is tasty, ver­sa­tile and very healthy,” Pedro Barato, pres­i­dent of the Interprofessional, said.

“But I want to high­light that today’s event goes beyond a pro­mo­tional action,” he added. ​“Here we are, rep­re­sent­ing two fun­da­men­tal sec­tors of our econ­omy, work­ing together, to con­quer the new nor­mal. We are all in the same boat.”

The Cecilia Payne runs from the Spanish main­land to the pop­u­lar tourist des­ti­na­tions of Ibiza and Palmadurante through­out the year. From July through September, the thou­sands of tourists who board the ship will be reminded of the Spanish olive oil sector.

“Join the healthy European lifestyle with olive oils from Spain. Olive oil makes a tastier world,” is writ­ten in large, bolded cap­i­tal let­ters on the ferry’s hull, sur­rounded by the rest of the logo.

The Olive Oil World Tour cam­paign was launched in 2018 with the sup­port of the European Union.

The goal is to raise aware­ness about extra vir­gin olive oils from the E.U. in key inter­na­tional mar­kets, includ­ing the United States, United Kingdom, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, China, Japan and Taiwan.

The effort is largely focused on major tran­sit hubs, with tast­ing areas and infor­ma­tional booths set up in some of the world’s busiest ports, air­ports and train stations.