Moroccan Olive Oil Gets a Push From a UN Agency
A United Nations agency, UNIDO, has been working with small Moroccan olive oil producers to improve their mills, their hygiene and the way they sell, and Olive Oil Times reports that the effort is behind a jump in the quality and value of Moroccan oil that is now drawing foreign investors. This note covers what the agency has done, why Morocco has always produced far below its potential, and what it would take for Moroccan extra virgin to be worth looking for.
What happened
According to a report published on July 22, UNIDO, the UN Industrial Development Organization, has worked with small-scale producers to modernize how they make oil, to organize them better and to market their product professionally so that more of the value stays at home. Morocco had a strong harvest in 2009, with the agency’s help, and this year the work continues: upgrading or repairing old machinery and plant, and advising producers on distribution and on selling abroad.
The report puts average Moroccan output at about 95,000 tonnes a year and says foreign investors are taking a closer look. It also notes that a Moroccan group, GIE Terroir de Maroc Oriental, recently took first prize from the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, and that this year the government showed Moroccan oil to an international audience at the country’s big farm show, the Salon International de l’Agriculture au Maroc. More than nine in ten Moroccan oils come from a single variety, the Picholine Marocaine.
Why Morocco has always punched below its weight
The gap between what Morocco grows and what it sells as good oil is old and well documented. The International Olive Council’s country profile makes the scale plain: the olive is the country’s main fruit tree, planted on roughly 600,000 hectares, and in 2003 some 400,000 farms had a grove. Yet the same profile notes that a large share of the crop still goes through traditional crushing units, where oil extraction rates rarely exceed about 14 percent, and that seed oils long ago took over the Moroccan kitchen.
| Morocco’s olive sector | Figure |
|---|---|
| Area under olives (IOC profile) | About 600,000 hectares |
| Farms with an olive grove (2003) | About 400,000 |
| Main variety | Picholine Marocaine, over 90 percent of the oil |
| Average annual oil output | About 95,000 tonnes |
| Extraction in traditional units | Rarely above 14 percent |
None of that is a quality problem in the fruit. It is a problem of what happens in the hours after picking: olives beaten down, piled in sacks, carried to a stone mill days later and pressed on mats that are never truly clean. The result is oil with high acidity and fermented flavors, sold locally as beldi, country oil, and loved by people who grew up with it. It is not extra virgin, and it never was.
What it would take, and what it means for buyers
The fix is unglamorous: pick earlier, get the fruit to the mill the same day, wash it, keep the mill clean and cold, and store the oil away from air and light. That is what projects like this one buy, along with the training to sell the result. The same logic drove the modern groves planted with Spanish technology that we covered when the king opened one in 2008, and it sits behind the country’s wider push to attract investment into agriculture.
- Moroccan extra virgin from a modern mill can be very good and is usually cheap for its quality.
- Most Moroccan oil is still traditional and will taste of the mill, not the fruit.
- Morocco is already a giant in table olives, which is where much of the money has been.
Plenty of Moroccan oil leaves the country in bulk, gets blended in Europe and comes back to you as a Mediterranean brand with no country on the front label. When a project like this raises quality, the first people to benefit are the bulk buyers who now get cleaner oil at the same price. The grower only gains if someone puts Morocco on the label and charges for it, which is exactly the part that development projects find hardest.
For background on how big the country already is in olives, see our older piece on Morocco as a table olive and olive oil player.
Sources
- Olive Oil Times, Moroccan EVOO gets boost from UN (July 22, 2010)
- International Olive Council, country profile: Maroc (PDF), archived copy
- UNIDO, Guide du producteur de l’huile d’olive, written with Morocco’s industry ministry and Spanish cooperation for UNIDO’s small rural enterprise project (PDF, archived copy)