The olive oil market in Portugal

The olive is a typically Mediterranean fruit that can be eaten in two ways: either as a condiment, as a table olive, or pressed to produce olive oil.

Olives are not edible immediately after harvesting; table olives are obtained by processing the fruit to make it sweeter and less bitter. This treatment usually involves maceration in cold water, then boiling and finally resting for several months in a brine composed of salt water and possibly herbs. Another possibility is to replace this last phase with oil conservation.

The oil is obtained by crushing fresh fruit, then filtering, centrifuging and heating (or not) the paste to extract the oil. There are several industrial processes for the extraction of oil, the main ones being cold extraction (which allows the best oil to be obtained), continuous extraction or the integral method Olive oil is one of the main ingredients in the Mediterranean diet, known as the Cretan diet; it is also used in cosmetics.

In recent years Portuguese production has substantial progress The quality and quantity of the products is also important. Nowadays, the quality of olive oil is recognized at international level and the olive oils have been awarded in all the major national and international competitions. Moreover, the country is now self-sufficient in terms of consumption and has become a reference exporter, being today the world's 9th largest producer of olive oil . The country has 361,000 hectares of olive groves, from which approximately 135 000 tonnes of olive oil . Annual per capita consumption in Portugal can still increase (seven litres per year), compared with Spain (nine) and Italy (ten). [ Dinheiro Vivo ]