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Large amounts of impure olive oil imported into Iran’s market coupled with poor-quality domestic products lead to customer dissatisfaction

Chairman of the Agriculture Commission of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce Shahrokh Zahiri regretted that more than 90 percent of the imported olive oil, coming from Turkey and Italy, has poor quality.

At present, about 100,000 hectares of land are under olive cultivation, in compliance with a 1995 initiative adopted by Agriculture Ministry to boost olive production.

As per the Fourth National Development Plan (2005-10), each year 50,000 hectares of land should be set aside for olive cultivation.

ISNA quoted Zahiri as saying that the conditions should be set for domestic cultivators to produce healthy genuine olive oil as Iran is holding the rotating presidency of the International Olive Council in 2007.

There are 36 olive-oil producing units in Iran.

“Poor-quality imports and impure domestically-produced olive oil is the major problem of this industry in Iran,” he said, adding that a meeting has been held with olive oil producers to discuss ways of producing real olive oil and raising the consumers’ awareness of impure products.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has estimated that olive oil, which is a rich nutrient cutting cancer risk, will be put on the family basket as of 2010.

Zahiri further said that olive oil producers should be constantly monitored by the Health Ministry and operate under the supervision of the Institute of Standard and Industrial Research of Iran.

Olive production reached 65,000 tons in the year to March 2006, when olive oil output reached 5,000 tons. Some 50 percent of olives produced annually are canned.

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