The history of olives

Olive trees mainly come from Spain; they produce olives and olive oil for the world.

When you think of olives, you imagine a little bowl on a bar counter or ordering a small bowl to go with your meal in a restaurant. They are also a favourite amongst buffets but what do you really know about where they came from?

Olives are grown on olive trees; these are evergreen trees or shrubs and are mainly native to the Mediterranean but also grown in Africa and Asia. They are quite short and squat and rarely exceed a height of 8 to 15 meters which is quite short and the trunk is usually twisted. They can live for many years as they are draught resistant and very rarely get diseases; they are also resistant against fires. One of the oldest olive trees in the entire world resides on Bar, Montenegro and is actually believed to be older than 2000 years old. In 1975 a bus ran over a tree and uprooted it west Athens, this tree was names Plato’s olive tree and was believed to be 2,400 years old. It is now however preserved in the agricultural university of Athens as a major historical piece.

Did you know that nearly 18 million tons where produced worldwide a few years ago and that number is likely to be increasing, with Spain being responsible for nearly 6 and a half million. The main country producing olives in the world with 2 and a half million hectares of land used solely for growing olive trees. Countries in the Mediterranean are responsible for 95% of the olives in the world and Spain alone has a history of growing olives dating back at least 2000 years.

There is a history of the Romans importing billions of litres Spanish olives and Spanish oil to Italy, this still goes on today as Spain is the main source of the goods.

All olives and oil vary in taste depending on where in Spain they are produced, it goes on climate conditions, the soil the plant is grown in and the heat etc. They all have different names and are sold as different olives and oils and only one single type of olive is grown in one area. The main olives grown and sold today are Empeltre, Hojiblanca, Lechin, Picual, Cornicabra, Verdial, Arbequina, Picudo and varieties. There are also black and green olives. Olives are harvested at the green stage but can be left to ripen which creates a deeper richer colour which is known as the black olives. Some olives however are artificially coloured, usually the olives you buy in a tin at the supermarket.

The production of Spanish olives is controlled in Spain as is any other food production. They are only interested in the highest quality of olive and oil and truly stand by their reputation for having a good standard of product, nothing less than the best. This is why nearly a quarter of the worlds olives come from Spain, because their product is of such a high quality that it are favoured among the rest of the world.

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