The OOWC continues its internationalisation and is presented to the Diplomatic Corps in Madrid

The Olive Oil World Congress (OOWC) continues its international promotional activities to raise awareness of this important event, which will take place in June 2024, and which aims to become a meeting point for the olive oil sector and professionals.

Thus, and framed under the umbrella "On the Road to OOWC 2024", the organisers of the OOWC presented this event to the diplomatic corps of numerous countries accredited in Spain to inform them about this initiative.

Among those present were representatives of the embassies of the main olive oil producing and consuming countries, such as Italy, Greece, Portugal, Tunisia and Turkey, as well as other countries such as Australia, Brazil, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, France, Germany, Honduras, Hungary, Jordan, Malta, Mexico and Qatar.

During the event, the OOWC organisers encouraged the attendees to participate in one of the working committees, where the activities and events for future events will be decided. In this way, direct contact will be made with the most important professionals in the olive oil sector and the brand will be promoted both within and beyond our borders.

Likewise, the first APP for the entire olive oil sector was presented, which the OOWC has launched to interconnect the main stakeholders at national and international level.

The 'Olive Oil World Congress' application is available for Android and IOS in both Spanish and English. To download the APP it is necessary to access Google Play in the Android version or through the following link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=sentidocomun.apps.oliveoilworldcongress, and in the case of the IOS version through the APP Store by entering the following link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/olive-oil-world-congress/id1672583400.

But that's not all, because through the APP, its users will remain in contact with professionals in the sector thanks to the OOWC's "LinkedIn", a platform where anyone who registers can contact other registered operators, share projects, develop business and exchange information on production, processing or markets.

The OOWC aims to be a tool built by all the links in the olive value chain worldwide in order to promote knowledge about the product, especially in view of the complicated situation that the olive sector is currently experiencing internationally, due to the reduction of the harvest in producing countries and last year's drought.

During the meeting, the forecast of olive oil production, consumption and international trade was presented.

According to data from the International Olive Oil Council (IOC), the European Commission and the sector itself, production in the countries from the European Union is estimated to have decreased by 34% compared to the previous season. In the case of Spain, provisional figures for the last season show a 55% drop, to 680,000 tonnes for the 2022/2023 season. The same seems to have happened in Italy, Portugal and Morocco, where a drop of 26%, 39% and 22% respectively is estimated.

In the case of Greece, the production for this season is estimated to increase by almost 51% and in countries such as Turkey, the production is estimated to increase by 62% this season to 380,000 tonnes.

In general, globally, it is estimated that olive oil production will decrease by 20% compared to the previous season, standing at around 2,700,000 tonnes for the 2022/2023 season.

On the other hand, in the case of total exports, including operations between EU and non-EU countries, Spain estimates a decrease of 37%, to 700,000 tonnes in the 2022/2023 marketing year. Similarly, for Italy, some 280,000 tonnes are estimated for this season, 13% less than in 2021/2022; while in Portugal, an increase of 6% is expected, reaching 280,000 tonnes.

As far as consumption is concerned, worldwide data estimates a 7% drop for the 2022/2023 season compared to the previous season. For the moment, Italy is in the first place among olive oil consuming countries with an estimated increase of 1% for the current season, ousting Spain from world leadership. Our country is now at the top of the list of European Union members that have seen their consumption fall, with 28% less than the previous season. At a considerable distance behind are other producers such as France and Portugal, whose consumption is estimated to have fallen by 5% and 3% respectively.

Under the slogan 'Taste it, enjoy, It's olive oil', the congress is organised by AgroBank, the Junta de Castilla-La Mancha through the brand Campo y Alma and the Junta de Andalucía through its brand 'Gusto del Sur', as Platinum sponsors, Grupo Interóleo, Balam Agriculture and Agrocolor, as Gold sponsors; and the company Kubota as Silver sponsor.