In Focus: The Picholine Marocaine Olive

Few countries lean on a single variety the way Morocco leans on the Picholine Marocaine. This one drought-hardy cultivar accounts for the great majority of the kingdom’s olive trees, doing double duty as both a fine table olive and the source of a stable, peppery oil. It is, in effect, Morocco’s national olive.

A near-monoculture, by necessity

The Picholine Marocaine makes up well over ninety percent of Morocco’s olive plantings — a degree of varietal dominance almost unmatched anywhere. The reason is climate: this is a vigorous, erect tree with exceptional drought tolerance, exactly what Morocco’s hot, dry interior demands. It is moderately early, highly productive, and despite sharing part of its name with the French Picholine, it is its own distinct population variety. That near-monoculture is a strength in a harsh climate and a vulnerability too — a country resting its olive economy on one cultivar has fewer cards to play against pests or disease.

Table and oil from one fruit

The Picholine Marocaine is genuinely dual-purpose. Its medium-sized fruit makes excellent table olives in every style — green Spanish-style, turning, black — with a firm, good-quality flesh. Milled, it yields an oil of around sixteen to twenty-two percent that is well regarded: medium-green fruitiness with notes of artichoke, green almond and tomato, balanced bitterness and moderate pepper, and a high polyphenol load that gives good stability. The tree resists drought well but is sensitive to peacock-spot and the olive fly, the usual Mediterranean foes. As a single variety doing nearly everything, it shapes the whole Moroccan style.

Based on the International Olive Council world catalogue of olive varieties.