Spanish olive oil

OLIVE OIL

Have you ever wondered what happens to the olives that you see being shaken off the olive trees of Spain in late autumn?  After all, one moment you see them being collected from the ground in nets and then, the next thing that you know – you see Spanish olive oil in the shops ready for you to buy.

Well, recently I was invited to a Spanish olive oil mill based in Valencia Province.  This mill, one of the biggest in the area, processes olives and turns them into the golden liquid that we all love so much.  In fact, the mill processed 2 million kilos of olives in 2010 to produce 400,000 litres of Extra-Virgin olive oil (the best of all!).

As you can imagine, given the colossal amount of olives processed, you would expect to see a vast factory with lines of machinery stretching into the distance.  This was not actually the case and, interestingly, the machines that process the olives take up only a small part of the olive mill itself.

Most of the space in the mill was actually used for vast stainless steel containers – each of which can hold 50,000 litres of olive oil.  There were 18 of these, allowing the mill to hold some 650,000 litres of olive oil.  Enough to keep us all going for several lifetimes!

So, what is the story of Spanish olive oil?

The first thing to appreciate is that there are many different varieties of olive tree – each producing olives that give a distinctive individual taste.  In fact, an expert in Spanish olive oil will be able to taste a particular olive oil and know exactly where it comes from and the name of the producer – much the same as a connoisseur would know which bodega produced a given wine.

SPANISH OLIVE OIL - SOME OF THE GRINDING AND CENTRIFUGAL MACHINERY

In Valencia Province one of the traditional varieties of olive oil is ‘Villalonga’ which has (I gather) a ‘fruity’ taste and is neither as sweet as Andalusian olives nor as bitter as those grown further north.  Of course, each olive oil producer will blend different olives to produce their own distinctive flavour thus ‘mirroring’ the wine industry.

There are several quality grades of olive oil – the most important of which are:

-         Extra-Virgin.  This is the finest olive oil available, is completely pure, unadulterated has no chemicals added in any way and, importantly, has an acidic level less than 0.8%.  This is the connoisseurs olive oil, has a distinctive taste and is what you will, by choice, put on your salads.

-         Virgin. This is pure olive oil however it has an acidic level of less than 2%

-         Pure or just olive oil.  This is refined olive oil meaning that it has been chemically treated.  It can still be consumed but it will lack a distinctive taste.

Needless to say, great pride is taken by Spanish olive oil producers in the quality of their ‘Extra-Virgin’ olive oil, its taste and intrinsic quality.  It is, of course, more expensive to buy than ‘pure’ olive oil but the ‘pure’ olive oil, by comparison, is like a cheap wine – fit for purpose but not a substance of joy!

Many Spanish olive oil mills are co-operatives and process the olive oil of the partners of the co-operative who farm locally.  The mill I went to is no exception to this and receives olives from the farmers surrounding the mill between October to mid December.  This is a busy time for the mill and it runs some twelve hours a day for about two and a half months (with only 6 staff) and has a processing capacity of 150,000 kilos of olives per day.

50,000 LTRS OF SPANISH OLIVE OIL

The olives are brought into the mill and processed the same day that they are harvested – as they are never stored.  The system is:

1.  All the olives are weighed.

2.  A machine washes the olives and gets rid of any dirt

3.  The olives are then ground into a paste

4.  A further machine separates the oil and water mix from the skin and olive stones using a centrifugal system running at 4,000 revs.

5.  The oil and water mix is then further filtered and enters another centrifugal machine running at 7,000 revs which separates the water from the oil.

6.  The oil is then pumped into storage containers where it remains for a minimum of 20 to 25 days to allow the remaining sediment in the oil to drop to the bottom of the tanks.

7.  The olive oil, when required, is then drained from the huge storage tanks, filtered again and blended to provide the distinctive and consistent Extra-Virgin olive oil I saw (and tasted).  It is then poured into retail containers as appropriate (plastic containers or glassware etc.).

Interestingly, an olive is comprised of 65% water and 21% oil.  The remainder of an olive is made up of the stone and skin.  So, only a small proportion of an olive provides oil.  That said, the stone within the olive remains a useable part of the process and, once ground down, is extracted, dried and sold as fuel for fires.

Of course, olive trees vary enormously in their productivity.  However, an average olive tree in Spain will produce some 15/20 kilos of olives and a hectare of land will often have some 200 trees.  This can be greater if the olive trees have been planted for intensive cultivation – a trend that is now becoming more common.

SPANISH OLIVE OIL

Incidentally, it takes 5 kilos of olives to produce 1 litre of olive oil and a farmer will receive (this depends upon market conditions) something like 1.80 Euros per kilo of olive oil in Spain (more or less a litre).  To be a member of a co-operative you would need to have a minimum of some 30/40 productive trees – although I doubt that you will be able to live off the income!

As with other Spanish agricultural products, the olive oil industry in Spain is under attack from other countries such as Tunisia and Morocco who are able to produce olive oil cheaper than producers in Spain.  This is galling for the Spanish olive oil industry whose Extra-virgin olive oil is the best in the world…

Finally, if you are an importer of olive oil or need to know more about the machinery involved in the olive oil process then please contact Culture Spain

Nick Snelling – Culture Spain