Market opportunity for olivenia

The market targeted by Olivenia is the olive-tree farmers & the olive-tree cooperatives.

Over 750 million olive trees are cultivated worldwide, 95% of which are in the Mediterranean region. Most of global production comes from Southern Europe, North Africa & the Near East. Of the European production, 93% comes from Spain, Italy & Greece.

Spain is the country with the highest number of olive trees (more than 300 million), & is nowadays the world’s leading olive & olive oil producer & exporter with 2.1 million hectares (5.19 million acres) of olive groves.

Italy is the 2nd EU producer; two-thirds of the production is represented by extra-virgin oil with 37 Protected Origin Appellation widespread on its territory. In Italy there are about 6.180 olive oil mills & the overall amount of processed olives in 2006/2007 was about 3.500.000 tons with a production of about 600.000 tons of oil.

Greece devotes 60% of its cultivated land to olive growing. It is the world’s top producer of black olives & has more varieties of olives than any other country. Greece holds third place in world olive production with more than 132 million trees, which produce approximately 350,000 tons of olive oil annually, of which 82% is extra-virgin. About half of the annual Greek olive oil production is exported, but only some 5% of this reflects the origin of the bottled product. Greece exports mainly to European Union (EU) countries, principally Italy, which receives about three-quarters of total exports. Olives are grown for oil in Greece, with Peloponnese being the source of 65% of Greek production, as well as in Crete, the Aegean Islands & Ionian Islands.

Exhaustive details can be found in here,
here
& here (all links to accredited sources such as the EU & International Olive Council & PROSODOL EU funded project).