Trás-os-Montes Olive Oil Wins Prizes and Asks for a Louder Voice
Trás-os-Montes, the hill country of northeastern Portugal, is collecting international prizes for its olive oil this year, yet the head of its growers’ association says Portugal still does too little to promote quality oil and even lets the word for olive oil cover blends with refined oil. The region supplied about 30 percent of Portugal’s olive oil in 2008/09. Here is what the region has won, what its growers are asking for, and why its complaints are worth hearing outside Portugal.
A run of prizes
Olive Oil Times, in a profile published yesterday, lists the region’s recent successes. In the Italian guide Flos Olei, nine of the 17 Portuguese producers included in the 2010 edition come from the Azeite de Trás-os-Montes protected designation of origin, and Portugal’s highest-rated oil, Romeu from Sociedade Clemente Menéres, scored 92 points. The guide also placed Maria Andrade, a Mirandela producer, among its world top 20.
Her João das Barbas oil then took second place in the designation of origin category at a world extra virgin competition held in the Italian pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo. In Los Angeles, the Porca de Murça oil won silver in its category and Magna Olea took bronze in the Cobrançosa category.
Andrade’s story is the kind the trade loves. The Portuguese daily Jornal de Notícias reported last December that she has more than 3,000 trees at Cabanelas, near Mirandela, and decided to bottle her own designation oil only in 2008, at the age of 80. She told the paper that most growers in the area harvest late because the fruit yields more oil and pays better, but that real quality comes only if picking is done before the frosts.
| Azeite de Trás-os-Montes PDO | As reported |
|---|---|
| Created | 1994, one of six olive oil designations in Portugal |
| Designated olive groves | About 47,000 hectares on nearly 6,000 farms |
| Main varieties | Cobrançosa, Verdeal Transmontana, Madural, Cordovil |
| Where the fruit goes | 17 cooperatives and about 100 local mills |
| Value to the regional economy | More than 30 million euros a year |
What the growers want
António Branco, president of the Association of Olive Growers of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro (AOTAD), told Olive Oil Times that success abroad hides some real problems at home. Portugal has no national interprofessional body to promote and protect its olive oil, and in his view the government is more concerned with cutting Portugal’s reliance on imported oil than with building exports of quality oil. He also wants the rules on showing country of origin on bottles applied more firmly.
His sharpest point is about a single word. In Portugal, “azeite”, the everyday word for olive oil, is also used commercially for the blend of refined olive oil and virgin oil that the rest of the world sells as plain “olive oil”. AOTAD wants “azeite” reserved for extra virgin and virgin oil only, because the current use confuses shoppers. Our explainer on virgin and extra virgin olive oil sets out why that blend is a different product.
- AOTAD is working on a new designation covering the Douro region.
- It is exploring joint tourism and marketing with Castilla y León, across the Spanish border.
- It is investing 1.3 million euros in an online network that gives members production and quality data, pest warnings and a trading platform.
AOTAD itself won Flos Olei’s Cristina Tiliacos prize last year for promoting olive growing, which Jornal de Notícias said was recognition of its effort to make the designation known as a distinctive quality oil.
Why it matters beyond Portugal
None of the growers in the designation lives from olives alone, according to Olive Oil Times. They also raise animals and grow other crops, and most sell their fruit to a cooperative or a local mill. That is typical of traditional olive country everywhere, and it is why quality depends so much on the mill and on when the fruit is picked. Our note on “first of the season” on a label explains why early harvest matters, and our guide on how to read an olive oil label shows where to find the origin.
Late harvest is a quiet economic choice, not a failure of skill. Riper fruit gives more oil per ton, and when a mill pays by weight or by oil yield, a grower who waits earns more. Early-harvest oil tastes greener and keeps longer, but somebody has to pay for the lost yield. When a region wins prizes, it is usually because a handful of producers decided to eat that cost.
Sources
- Olive Oil Times, “Trás-os-Montes Producers Focus on Quality” (November 15, 2010)
- Jornal de Notícias, “Azeite de Cabanelas no top 20 mundial” (December 25, 2009)