Sustainability Keeps This Award-Winning Producer Grounded

Summary

Olive oil pro­duc­tion in Spain is below aver­age, but pro­duc­ers on the Balearic Islands had a suc­cess­ful har­vest, with the island pro­duc­ing 1,240 tons of olive oil in 2023/24. Treurer, a farm in Mallorca, stands out for its high-qual­ity olive oil pro­duc­tion, sus­tain­able prac­tices, and com­mit­ment to pro­mot­ing oleo­tourism.

Olive oil pro­duc­tion in Spain is once again sig­nif­i­cantly below the his­tor­i­cal aver­age, but pro­duc­ers on the Balearic Islands cel­e­brated a fruit­ful har­vest.

According to data from Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the Balearic Islands have pro­duced about 1,240 tons of olive oil in 2023/24, while the whole of Spain has pro­duced 775,320 tons.

“This sea­son has been bet­ter in terms of pro­duc­tion than the pre­vi­ous one,” said Miguel Miralles Sastre, owner of award-win­ning Treurer.

“Even if it did not rain that much, it did in the most impor­tant moments for the olive trees,” he added. ​“As for the qual­ity, it is extra­or­di­nary.”

Treurer is a quaint farm nes­tled in the munic­i­pal­ity of Algaida on Mallorca, the largest island of the Balearics, and stands out for its unique loca­tion.

While olive trees are com­mon across the Mediterranean arch­i­pel­ago, Mallorca boasts the most exten­sive pro­duc­tion areas. The island is also notable for its ancient olive trees, some even dat­ing back mil­len­nia.

Today, Treurer com­bines high-qual­ity olive oil pro­duc­tion and oleo­tourism. ​“The farm lends its name to our fam­ily-run busi­ness, which was estab­lished by my father, Joan, two decades ago,” Miralles Sastre said.

“Like many of his peers, my father ven­tured into tourism, leav­ing behind agri­cul­tural pur­suits,” he added. ​“Yet, after over four decades in tourism, he decided to recon­nect with his agri­cul­tural roots.”

Treurer ensures its world-class qual­ity by over­see­ing the entire pro­duc­tion chain, from cul­ti­va­tion to bot­tling.

The farm oper­ates its own mill, trans­form­ing olives from more than 3,000 Arbequina trees. Harvesting begins early in October, with olives reach­ing the mill within an hour of col­lec­tion.

“The daily com­mit­ment to the trees has paid off,” Miralles Sastre said, ref­er­enc­ing the Gold Award that won at the 2023 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition and its impor­tance for access­ing new mar­kets.

Planted in a tra­di­tional lay­out in 2007, Treurer only grows Arbequina olives, which are inte­gral to the Mallorca Protected Denomination of Origin.

“Our olive oil is dis­tin­guished by its bal­anced fla­vor pro­file, fea­tur­ing intense fruiti­ness and mod­er­ate spici­ness and bit­ter­ness,” Miralles Sastre said. ​“Its aro­matic notes evoke tomato, freshly cut grass, almond, green apple, arti­choke, fen­nel and green banana.”

Along with pro­duc­ing a high-qual­ity prod­uct, sus­tain­abil­ity is an impor­tant tenet of Treurer’s project. The farm adopts a deficit irri­ga­tion strat­egy to man­age water effi­ciently, espe­cially dur­ing droughts.

This approach, increas­ingly pop­u­lar among Mediterranean olive grow­ers, involves sup­ply­ing less water than the crops entirely require at spe­cific growth stages, enhanc­ing water use effi­ciency while poten­tially improv­ing oil qual­ity.

“Deficit irri­ga­tion demands pre­cise con­trol over the annual water sup­ply to the trees, induc­ing mild water stress that has been shown to enhance olive oil qual­ity,” Miralles Sastre said.

“Our fore­most aim is to cul­ti­vate healthy, robust trees that yield excep­tional fruit, the foun­da­tion of our olive oil,” he added. ​“The milling process fur­ther infuses our oil with a unique char­ac­ter.”

After milling, Treurer also uses advanced stor­age tech­niques, keep­ing the olive oil in nitro­gen-capped stain­less steel tanks at a con­stant tem­per­a­ture.

“This way, cus­tomers who buy directly from us can enjoy the same olive oil that my fam­ily con­sumes at home,” Miralles Sastre said. ​“This is excep­tional in the agri-food sec­tor, a real exam­ple of the from-tree-to-table prin­ci­ple.”

The pro­ducer also high­lighted the far­m’s com­mit­ment to devel­op­ing a cir­cu­lar econ­omy, a regen­er­a­tive sys­tem where resources are reused, recy­cled, and restored, min­i­miz­ing waste and pro­mot­ing sus­tain­abil­ity through­out the prod­uct life cycle.

“At Treurer farm, sus­tain­abil­ity is at the core of our olive oil pro­duc­tion,” Miralles Sastre said. ​“My fam­ily lives here, so we are ded­i­cated to pre­serv­ing our nat­ural sur­round­ings.”

Embracing cir­cu­lar econ­omy prin­ci­ples, the farm uses the pomace from olive oil pro­duc­tion as com­post, enrich­ing the soil for future har­vests.

The goal is to lessen envi­ron­men­tal impact through var­i­ous mea­sures, includ­ing renew­able energy use, water con­ser­va­tion, waste reduc­tion and recy­cling.

A sig­nif­i­cant part of Treurer’s tourism activ­i­ties involves wel­com­ing guests to the farm­house, intro­duc­ing them to high-qual­ity olive oil, and pro­mot­ing the island’s olive oil cul­ture, a con­cept Miralles Sastre said his father pio­neered a decade ago.

“Ten years ago, when nobody was talk­ing about oleo­tourism, my father began host­ing vis­its to our farm to pro­mote the cul­ture asso­ci­ated with olive oil,” he said. ​“Since then, thou­sands of peo­ple have passed through, and many have become our clients and friends.”

Miralles Sastre leads biweekly tours, encour­ag­ing vis­i­tors to explore the olive grove and mill, par­tic­i­pate in tast­ings and enjoy tra­di­tional Mallorcan food while empha­siz­ing the impor­tance of olive oil.

“Raising aware­ness about the ben­e­fits of extra vir­gin olive oil is cru­cial, espe­cially among younger con­sumers who rep­re­sent the future mar­ket,” he added. ​“Continuous edu­ca­tion on its qual­i­ties is nec­es­sary.”