olives101OLIVE NEWS & INFORMATION 🇺🇸 🇫🇷

Year: 2009

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IOC Sees a Bigger 2009/10 Crop as Prices Edge Up

The IOC puts world olive oil production for 2009/10 at 2.88 million tonnes, up 8 percent, with stocks ample and grower prices…

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Snow and Frost Batter Alicante’s Mountain Olive Groves

Snow and frost damage to olive groves in the Alicante mountains: frozen fruit, broken branches and years of lost crops, says ASAJA.…

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Spain Widens Olive Insurance and Extends the Deadline

Spain extends its olive insurance deadline to December 23 and widens cover to hail at flowering and wildlife damage. Why growers still…

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Jaén’s Olive Oil Museum at Geolit Nears Completion

Jaén's olive oil museum at Geolit will finish building within two months, with tasting rooms, labs and biomass displays. What it is…

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Wagga Lab Tests Get Fake Extra Virgin Pulled in Australia

Fake extra virgin olive oil pulled from Australian shelves after Wagga Wagga lab tests found canola and refined oil. What the ACCC…

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Spain Closes 2008/09 With 208,000 Tonnes in the Tanks

Spain's olive oil stocks ended the season at 207,800 tonnes, 15 percent below average, after record sales. Why the grower still gets…

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IOC Turns 50 and Adds an Alkyl Ester Limit for Extra Virgin

At its 50th anniversary session the IOC added an alkyl esters limit for extra virgin olive oil. What the new test catches…

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Jaén’s Olive Growers Close Ranks and Call a Farm Stoppage

Jaén's olive growers call a farm stoppage for November 20 as oil sells at 2.10 euros a kilo, below cost. Why the…

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Umbria’s Mills Open Their Doors for the New Oil

Frantoi Aperti brings open mills to Umbria, with Trevi's Festivol on November 7 and 8. What the weekends offer and how to…

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Chile’s Olive Oil Exports Jump 144 Percent in 2009

Chile's olive oil exports are up 144 percent this year, its agriculture minister says, with output near 8,500 tonnes. Why a small…

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Olive Oil Diet and Blood Pressure: Spanish Study Finds a Clue

Olive oil diet and blood pressure: a CSIC study of 36 PREDIMED patients found changes in red cell membranes. What it showed,…

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West Bank Olive Harvest Opens Under Pressure

The 2009 West Bank olive harvest opened on October 11 amid a spike in settler incidents, burned trees and blocked groves, UN…

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Jaén Forecasts 530,000 Tonnes as Frost-Hit Growers Protest

Jaén olive oil forecast: 530,000 tonnes, up a fifth, while growers ruined by the 2005 frost block a Jaén avenue over their…

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Oleocanthal Alters Alzheimer’s Proteins in Lab Tests

Oleocanthal, the peppery compound in extra virgin olive oil, changed Alzheimer's proteins in Monell lab tests. What the study showed and what…

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Seville Table Olive Growers Down Tools Over Prices

Seville table olive growers shut their cooperatives and rallied at the Casa Rosa as picking costs overtake the price of green olives.…

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Olive Mill Waste Fiber Tested in Low-Fat Meatballs

Olive mill waste fiber cut fat in fried meatballs in a Lund and Crete study. What worked, what failed, and why mills…

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EPA Clears a Weed Killer for US Olive Groves

The EPA has set the first US residue limit for pendimethalin on olives, at 0.1 ppm. Why a minor crop needed a…

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Argentina Sprays 3,500 Hectares Against an Olive Scale

Cordoba has brought forward the spraying of 3,500 hectares of olives against bud scale after a warm winter. Why timing decides a…

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Attica Wildfires Burn Olive Groves Around Marathon

The Attica wildfires of August 2009 burned some 21,000 hectares of pine, farmland and olive groves near Marathon. What was lost and…

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Diet and Exercise Together Track Lower Alzheimer’s Risk

A JAMA study of 1,880 older New Yorkers links a Mediterranean diet plus exercise to less Alzheimer's. What it shows and what…

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Spain Writes a School Diploma for Olive Oil and Wine

Spain has published a 2,000 hour school diploma in olive oils and wines, tasting room included. What students learn, and why it…

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USDA Lifts California’s Olive Levy After a Halved Crop

California olive handlers will pay $28.63 a ton instead of $15.60 after the crop fell from 108,059 tons to 49,067. What those…

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EU Promotion Money Includes Olive Oil Again

Brussels has approved 16 food promotion programs worth 62.1 million euros, olive oil among them. How the scheme works and who really…

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Sierra Magina’s Picual Oils Win Their Best Year Yet

A silver medal in Los Angeles caps the best awards season Sierra Magina has had. Why mountain picual is suddenly winning olive…

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Tiré des archives : la Crète recense ses oliviers anciens (2009)

En 2009, des scientifiques ont entrepris de recenser des centaines d'oliviers anciens de Crète, certains millénaires, avant que la chute des prix…

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From the Archive: Crete Counts Its Ancient Olive Trees (2009)

In 2009 scientists set out to catalogue hundreds of Crete's ancient olive trees, some over a thousand years old, before falling prices…

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Farmer looks to start olive oil industry in South Oregon

Southern Oregon keeps trying to grow olives on the strength of a Tuscan-like latitude. The promise is real oil with real character…

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Olive water study in Australia

Australian research found olive growers could water far less without losing yield or quality. The science of deficit irrigation — and why…

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Jaen Is Building a Museum for Olive Oil

Jaen is spending 4.6 million euros on an olive oil museum at the Geolit park. What it will hold, and whether a…

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Californian Olive Oil Labels reflect new data

California adopted international olive-oil grade standards to bring order to a booming industry. Here is what the grades on the label actually…

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The New Californian Olive Trend

California's growers pivoted from canning olives to oil, planting hedgerows of Spanish Arbequina that a machine can harvest — a shift that…

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Surprising Uses for Olive Oil Around the House

Olive oil earns its place in the kitchen, but the bottle is quietly useful all over the house. The tricks that actually…

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Discover the Amazing Benefits of the Olive Leaf

Olive leaf and its main compound, oleuropein, have a long folk history and some genuinely interesting research — but the honest picture…

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Olive oil on a damp sponge mop is a one-step cleaner & polisher for hardwood floors

Olive oil as a one-step wood-floor cleaner and polish is an old household trick. Here is what it genuinely does, where it…

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Olive Oil, Good Fats and Your Mood

The fats in olive oil, fish and nuts are linked in research to mood and brain health. Here is the careful, honest…

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Olive phenols contain biologic response modifiers that can help reduce the inflammation associated with arthritis.

IN Malaysia, an estimated 60% of the population will have some form of arthritis by the age of 60, particularly osteoarthritis. Rheumatoid…

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Timbercorp : High costs dampen almond, olive takeovers

When agribusiness giant Timbercorp collapsed, its olive and almond schemes showed what happens when olive groves are sold as a tax play…

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Australian Olive growers face low yields

Frost, unseasonal heat and hail can wreck an olive crop's oil yield even when the fruit looks fine — why Australia's boutique…

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Olive growers’ crops looking sparse

Why an olive crop that looks glorious in spring can vanish by summer — the science of fruit set, shot berries and…

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an Importer fights state’s stricter olive oil laws

When a US state adopted the world's stricter olive-oil standards, an importer went to court. The fight is dry on paper —…

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McEvoy Ranch in northern Marin unveils windmill

A wind turbine on a famous California olive ranch was once a local controversy. It is really a window into a bigger…

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$200,000 boost for Australian Olive Association

A government grant to promote Australian olive oil is a small story about a big problem: how a young, high-quality producer competes…

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Beef burger with olives and feta

Chopped olives and feta turn an ordinary beef patty into something Mediterranean and juicy. Here is how to build one — and…

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Presentation of /lambda/ Olive Oil on a TV Show

What does 'luxury' actually mean on a bottle of extra virgin olive oil? A look at the ultra-premium end — award shows,…

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Can Olive Extracts Keep Food Fresh?

The same antioxidants that make olive oil good for you may also help food last longer. A quiet, useful corner of olive…

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UC Davis Olive Oil Conference Welcomes Public and Culinary Professionals

A landmark olive-oil conference gathered chefs, scientists and producers to chase one question: what actually separates truly great extra virgin from the…

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Viability of Timbercorp’s forests in doubt

The Timbercorp collapse turned thousands of Australians into accidental olive investors — then wiped them out. It is the clearest cautionary tale…

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Scientists Use Olive Industry Waste to eliminate heavy metals from sewage

Olive mills produce mountains of stones, pomace and prunings. Research shows this waste can pull toxic heavy metals out of polluted water…

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Olive Oil Fraud: How the Adulteration Really Works

Olive-oil fraud is thousands of years old and never went away. Here is how the adulteration really works — from the legal-but-misleading…

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Olio Capitale, Extra Virgin Olive Oil Italian Expo 2009

Trade fairs devoted entirely to extra virgin olive oil, like Trieste's Olio Capitale, are where Italy's small producers meet buyers — and…

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No recession for Olive Oil in UK

Why olive oil keeps winning kitchens far from any olive tree — the long, steady climb of a Mediterranean staple into Northern…

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Canada: Olive oil imports were half sunflower

An importer was fined after 'extra virgin olive oil' turned out to be roughly half sunflower oil. It is a textbook case…

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Australia and US try to change olive oil standards

New-world producers have long argued the international olive-oil rules were written for Europe. The row over Australian oil is really a story…

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European Union set to support olive oil sector with storage aid

When olive oil prices crash, the EU can pay producers to lock oil away in storage. Here is how 'private storage aid'…

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For the love of olives in Texas

Poor soil, fierce heat, little water — the very conditions that defeat most crops are what the olive quietly prefers. That is…

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California: The Olive Press earns top awards

A California producer sweeping a competition with a dozen medals is a good story — but what do olive-oil awards actually measure,…

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Australian Olive industry says MIS collapses won’t hold it back

How tax-driven investment schemes planted much of Australia's olive industry — then collapsed — and why the groves outlived the finance that…

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India: Publicis bags 2009 mandate for International Olive Council

Why does the olive world keep running campaigns to teach India to cook with olive oil? Because a vast, oil-loving country with…

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Lindsay Olives seeks sales in snack aisle, too

By David Morrill, Walk down the snack aisle of a local grocery store and you’ll find the usual canisters of peanuts, bags…

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Back to Business for Timbercorp Olives

When Timbercorp's harvest froze mid-season, one company bought the whole crop off the tree to keep it moving. It is a lesson…

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Moroccan chicken with chickpeas and olives

A one-pan Moroccan-style chicken braise with chickpeas, preserved lemon and green olives — where the olives are not a garnish but the…

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Olive Oil and Eye Health

Diets rich in olive oil, fish and nuts are linked to a lower risk of age-related macular degeneration. Here is the measured…

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Spanish olive oil producers get support from the EU to expand export markets

Spain makes more olive oil than anyone — yet exports much of it cheaply, in bulk, to be bottled abroad. Why the…

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SOS Cuetara to issue 200 mln euros of shares to plug hole

The famous names on olive-oil bottles — Carbonell, Bertolli, Carapelli — mostly belong to a handful of giant companies. How the world's…

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Tiré des archives : ceux qui faisaient venir l’huile fraîche de Toscane par avion (2009)

En 2009, un marchand de vin de Seattle a payé pour faire venir par avion une huile d'olive fraîchement pressée d'un domaine…

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From the Archive: The Men Who Air-Freighted Fresh Tuscan Oil (2009)

In 2009 a Seattle wine merchant paid to air-freight freshly pressed olive oil straight from a Tuscan estate — an extravagance, maybe,…

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Australia: Timbercorp olives sold to harvester

Australia's boldest olive experiment was industrial scale: thousands of hectares of hedgerow olives, machine-picked. Its near-collapse shows both the power and the…

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Iran interested in Croatian olive oil

A brief trade note about Iran eyeing Croatian olive oil opens a bigger story: how tiny Istria became a world-beating producer, and…

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Bottler year for WA’s olive oil industry

Western Australia grew from a handful of olive-oil producers to hundreds, many of them backyard growers. Here is what that boom says…

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SOS Cuetara’s top execs fired, shares suspended

How the world's biggest olive-oil bottler nearly destroyed itself: a cautionary tale of debt-fuelled ambition, famous brands like Bertolli, and why corporate…

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The Healing Powers of Olive Oil

'Liquid gold,' the ancients called it — and the health claims have never stopped. Here is the honest version: what olive oil…

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Australia: Timbercorp olive harvest goes ahead

A giant Australian grove kept harvesting even as its owner collapsed — because the fruit was worth far more picked than left…

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Olive Oil Production Returns to Afghanistan

Afghanistan's Nangarhar olive groves were planted in a hopeful mid-century push, then wrecked by war. Their fitful revival is a study in…

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Expert praises California olive oil

Going green can mean picking the right olive oil and one expert on the oil says California’s premium olive oils are often…

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CIA-UC Davis World Olive Oil Conference

Why does a great conference put olive oil under the microscope of trained tasters and chemists? Because the difference between real extra…

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Olive Oil Market during this Recession

When money is tight, how does a premium food like olive oil hold up? The answer reveals what really drives a maturing…

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Olives NZ step downs welcomed

When a head judge wins her own competition, an industry has a problem. The saga that split New Zealand's olive body is…

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Herbal Spotlight: Olive Leaf Extract

Olive leaf extract is one of the oldest folk remedies and one of the most oversold supplements. Here is the honest, de-hyped…

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Bible references the healing powers of olive oil

Olive oil is widely known for providing a wide range of health benefits, including but not limited to preventing skin cancer, support…

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Pakistan: Italians keen to invest in olive oil production

Pakistan spends heavily importing edible oil, and has wild olive hills that could grow the real thing. That is why outsiders keep…

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Tiré des archives : l’antioxydant de l’huile d’olive qui protège les globules rouges (2009)

Une étude de 2009 a nommé un antioxydant — le DHPEA-EDA — qui aide à comprendre pourquoi l'huile d'olive est bonne pour…

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From the Archive: The Olive-Oil Antioxidant That Protects Blood Cells (2009)

A 2009 study named one antioxidant — DHPEA-EDA — that helps explain why olive oil is good for the heart. Here is…

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Cook’s Books: Olive oil, the American way

For a century, good olive oil meant imported olive oil. The rise of serious American — above all Californian — oil quietly…

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SOS Cuetara to sell Dante olive oil brand for EUR34m

Olive-oil brands are bought and sold like any other asset. Here is why the famous name on the bottle tells you almost…

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Australia: Good oil goes big at Boort

One Australian grove of nearly a million trees produces a huge share of the nation's oil. How the mega-grove model works —…

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Greek festival to Promotes Olive Oil and Olives from Greece

Greece makes some of the world's finest olive oil and gets the least credit — much of it leaves in bulk to…

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SOS Cuetara to sell Dante Olive Oil and Minerva Oli to Mataluni

An 'Italian' olive-oil brand changing hands between a Spanish group and an Italian one is a tiny news item — and a…

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Slick suspect uses olive oil to rob store

A man once robbed a shop with a bottle of olive oil disguised as a gun. The daft crime is a doorway…

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Olive Oil vs Butter and Margarine: The Honest Comparison

Should you swap butter or margarine for olive oil? Mostly yes — but let's be honest about what each of the three…

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Olive Leaf Australia extracting healthy growth

Olive leaf extract has become a booming supplement. Here is the measured version: what oleuropein actually is, what the evidence supports, and…

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Olive Oil Cake (and a Chocolate Version)

Moist, dairy-free and quietly sophisticated, olive oil cake lets the oil itself be the flavour. Here is the simple master recipe, a…

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Bumper olive harvest expected in Western Australia

What actually makes a 'bumper' olive harvest — the weather, the flowering and the alternate-bearing rhythm behind a big year, seen through…

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How Olive Oil Is Made: From the Tree to the Bottle

Real olive oil is just pressed fruit — no chemistry, no heat, if it is done right. Here is the whole journey…

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Olive oil loses antioxidants after six months storage

Fresh olive oil can shed a large share of its antioxidants within about six months. Here is the mechanism — light, heat,…

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Olive Oil Facts: Ten Things Worth Knowing

A handful of true things about olives and their oil that surprise almost everyone — and that, between them, add up to…

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6th Edition of Vinolive, a Turkish Olive and Olives Oil Fair

Turkey is a top-tier olive nation you rarely see on a label. Its Aegean heartland and its trade fairs tell the story…

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NZ: CRI denies involvement in olive oil judging scandal

Who actually judges olive oil, and how? Behind every award sits a mix of trained tasters and laboratory chemistry — and knowing…

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Tiré des archives : les olives donnent de l’huile au Texas (2009)

En 2009, un Texan têtu plantait des vergers d'oliviers dans le Hill Country pendant que tout le monde disait que c'était impossible.…

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From the Archive: Olives Strike Oil in Texas (2009)

In 2009, a stubborn Texan was planting olive orchards in the Hill Country while everyone said it couldn't be done. The olive,…

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USDA approval for 1st U.S. Release of Authentic Olive Trees From Israel

The olive tree has been a symbol of peace and plenty for millennia — and a surprisingly willing houseplant. Here is what…

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Croatia: Punat Days of Olives festival has begun

Krk island's 'Days of Olives' is more than a festival — it is a window into Croatia's serious, under-the-radar olive tradition on…

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$450,000 Embezzled From SB Olive Co

An embezzlement at a California olive company is a small crime with a big lesson: olives and their oil carry real money…

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Croatia: Olive harvest enough for 51,000 hectolitres of olive oil

Croatia makes small quantities of world-class oil on a drought-prone Adriatic coast. Here is why its harvest swings so hard, and why…

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Slippery problem for New Zealand olive grower

A gold medal can transform a small oil's sales — which is exactly why the fairness of the contest matters so much.…

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Environment-friendly Olive Oil Factory

A modern olive mill is a race against time and oxygen — and increasingly a test of how cleanly you can run…

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Gold and Silver Medals Awarded to California Olive Ranch Extra Virgin Olive Oils

A medal on a bottle looks like proof of quality. Sometimes it is — and sometimes it means far less. Here is…

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Two Mediterranean Olive Oil Families Form an Alliance

Big olive-oil brands rest on family firms and cross-border alliances you never see. Here is how the trade behind the supermarket bottle…

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Indigenous olive oil project reaches an ‘interesting stage’

Malta once ran on olive oil, then almost forgot how to make it. The revival of the island's ancient indigenous Bidni olive…

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How to Read an Olive Oil Label

An olive-oil label is half information, half theatre. Here is how to read past the marketing to the five words that actually…

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sos cuetara targets 150 million eur from disposals

When a food giant borrows heavily to buy famous olive-oil brands, the reckoning is a fire sale. How debt forces companies to…

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South Australian olive growers to pay new levy

Why olive growers vote to tax themselves — the quiet logic of industry levies that fund marketing, research and the fight against…

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EMS and JOPEA hold an ‘Energy Saving Methods and Mechanisms in the Olive Sector seminar

A dry industry seminar on saving energy in the olive sector points at a real, hidden problem: milling olives eats power and…

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Women who consume olive oil preserve their bone mass better

A Greek study linked a diet rich in olive oil and fish to better bone mass in women. Here is what it…

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Tunisie – Huile d’olive : Les opportunités du marché russe

Tunisia is one of the world's great olive oil producers — and one of its most invisible, because so much of its…

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Can You Press Your Own Olive Oil at Home?

You can press your own olive oil at home. Whether it's worth it is another matter entirely, and the answer explains why…

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Olives May Be Rescued By Helpful Wasp

The olive fruit fly is the olive's worst enemy. One weapon against it is tiny and alive: a parasitic wasp that hunts…

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Olive oil sales help Aussies

Why a bottle of olive oil is one of the world's oldest gifts and rallying points — from disaster-relief sales to the…

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Tunisia: Olive Oil Yields Patents for Local Biochemistry Researcher

Tunisian scientists patenting discoveries about their native olive oils is a good excuse to ask a bigger question: what does the research…

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Aceite de La Alcarria Joins the EU Protected List

Aceite de La Alcarria is now a protected designation of origin. What its rule book demands, from the Castellana olive to bottling…

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Jaen’s Mills Stop as 10,000 March Over Olive Oil Prices

Nine mills in ten stopped work in Jaen and 10,000 people marched over olive oil prices. What growers are demanding from Madrid…

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Spain’s Olive Harvest Forecasts Keep Shrinking

Spain's olive harvest forecast keeps falling, Cordoba down 27 percent, yet prices at origin are on the floor. Why a short crop…

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EU Pesticide Overhaul Alarms Olive and Citrus Growers

Parliament has approved the EU's new pesticide rules. Spanish growers say olive fly control could get much harder. What was actually agreed.

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Pollen Counts Turn Out to Predict the Olive Crop

Spanish researchers say airborne pollen and March heat predict the olive crop. Plus a lab result on olive skins that needs careful…

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Spain Opens Entries for Its National Extra Virgin Prize

Spain's national extra virgin olive oil prize is open for the 2008/09 crop, with entries closing February 6. What the rules reveal…