`15th Expoliva Olive Oil Exhibition in Jaén - Olive Oil Times

15th Expoliva Olive Oil Exhibition in Jaén

By Julie Butler
Apr. 25, 2011 14:59 UTC

Spain’s huge olive oil fair, Expoliva, hopes to again attract more than 40,000 vis­i­tors this year, despite the dis­mal prices and low morale plagu­ing the coun­try’s olive oil pro­duc­ers.

The 15th International Fair of Olive Oil and Allied Industries – which claims to be the world’s biggest in the sec­tor – will run from May 11 – 14 in the cap­i­tal of olive oil pro­duc­tion, Jaén, in south­ern Spain.

More than 300 com­pa­nies – at least 20 from other coun­tries includ­ing Argentina, Germany, Italy, Portugal, the U.S., and Tunisia – have already signed up as exhibitors. Luis Carlos García, pres­i­dent of Jaén Fairs, admits the prob­lems beset­ting the indus­try have seen some com­pa­nies who have exhib­ited in past years pull out, but some new ones have shown inter­est.”

About 45,000 peo­ple – 1,000 from out­side Spain – reg­is­tered for the last Expoliva. Held in 2009, it spanned 30,000 square meters spread over four pavil­ions. Organizers say they have already achieved more than 90 per­cent occu­pancy for this year and, thanks to ten new for­eign par­tic­i­pants, a 15 per­cent increase in the num­ber of inter­na­tional stands.

Among those new exhibitors is North American Agro-Investments, which pro­vides investor advice in the U.S. olive oil sec­tor. Its pres­i­dent, Xavier Marques, told Expoliva the com­pa­ny’s aim was to encour­age Spanish com­pa­nies to diver­sify with invest­ment in olive groves in the U.S., the sec­ond biggest mar­ket for olive oil con­sump­tion.”

Expoliva actu­ally com­prises three events in one: an extra vir­gin olive oil exhi­bi­tion, a lead­ing sci­ence and tech­nol­ogy sym­po­sium, and the fair, which itself includes a machin­ery trade show cov­er­ing all facets of the olive oil pro­duc­tion chain, and gas­tron­omy pro­mo­tions.

Pieralisi group, which has par­tic­i­pated in Expoliva since its first edi­tion, will show in its booth a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of its new water­less ver­ti­cal cen­trifuge.

The gas­tron­omy pre­sen­ta­tions will high­light olive oil’s role in the Mediterranean diet, which was last year inscribed in UNESCO’S list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. Local gourmet prod­ucts will also be show­cased under the ban­ner Sabores de Jaén’ (The Flavors of Jaén).

Organizers stress that the expo is also intended to be a venue for doing some seri­ous busi­ness. This year, to help bring together buy­ers and sell­ers, atten­dees can request an appoint­ment with an exhibitor of inter­est sim­ply by fill­ing in a form on the expo web­site.

Key themes at Expoliva 2011 will be olive oil’s health ben­e­fits, envi­ron­men­tal issues and best prac­tices for the sec­tor.

Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition (Salón del Aceite de Oliva)

About 140 EVOOs, span­ning five con­ti­nents, have been entered in this com­pe­ti­tion, which was intro­duced only a few years ago in recog­ni­tion of the increas­ingly key role of pre­mium oil in Spain’s export mar­ket. First and sec­ond prizes will be awarded dur­ing the show in each of the fol­low­ing three cat­e­gories: Green fruity bitter/pungent oils, medium green fruity bitter/pungent oils, and fruity ripe/sweet oils.

Science & Technology Symposium

A record num­ber of sub­mis­sions – 166 – has been received for this year’s five forums:

Environment: cov­er­ing sus­tain­able devel­op­ment, mech­a­niza­tion, pro­duc­tion meth­ods (tra­di­tional, inten­sive and super-inten­sive pro­duc­tion), and cli­mate change.

Industry, Technology and Quality: new tech­nolo­gies for pro­cess­ing olive oil, qual­ity con­ser­va­tion, bio­mass and bio­fu­els, process automa­tion and opti­miza­tion, etc.

Economic and Social: mar­ket­ing strate­gies, inter­na­tional trade, busi­ness man­age­ment, the knowl­edge-based econ­omy.

Food and Health: new evi­dence of olive oil’s health ben­e­fits and gas­tro­nomic qual­i­ties, and recent appli­ca­tions in cos­met­ics.

Olive Oil Culture: pro­mo­tion of olive oil cul­ture and how to rep­re­sent related lifestyles in museum and other such set­tings.

Garcia said that apart from being an impor­tant venue for doing busi­ness, one of Expoliva’s fun­da­men­tal roles was to pro­mote inno­va­tion and research in the olive oil indus­try.

Sources:

Expoliva International Fair of Olive Oil and Allied Industries
20minutos.es

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