Lang
SEVILLE, Spain — The 8th BusinessAGRO Olive Industry Roundtable convened this week at the Oleand Manzanilla Olive facilities in La Puebla de Cazalla, Seville, bringing together producers, cooperatives, and policymakers to assess the outlook for the 2026/27 table olive and olive oil campaign.
The event, organized by Siete Agromarketing and eComercio Agrario in partnership with Oleand Manzanilla Olive and COAG Sevilla, was held under the theme 'How to Make Olive Growing Profitable in a Changing World.' Participants examined the sector's most pressing challenges, including labor shortages, slow crop mechanization, rising input costs, unfair competition from third countries, and the mounting impact of climate change.
During the opening session, Consolación Vera Sánchez, Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, Water and Rural Development of the Regional Government of Andalusia, emphasized the regional government's commitment to building a 'competitive, profitable and sustainable olive sector.' She noted that Andalusia accounts for 80% of Spain's olive-growing area, while the province of Seville is Andalusia's leading producer of table olives.
The Andalusian Ministry of Agriculture struck an optimistic tone about the new campaign, citing initial crop estimates pointing to high production levels. However, both Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias de Sevilla and COAG Sevilla urged a more cautious reading of those figures, especially in light of the high temperatures recorded in recent days.
'Therefore, caution is needed when considering these crop estimates, which will not be definitive—at least for table olives—until November,' said Gabriel Cabello López, president of Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias de Sevilla.
Francisco Manuel Fernández Pérez, COAG's national representative for table olives, echoed that view, urging producers to wait for the current heatwave to pass before revising forecasts. 'We will have to wait for this new heatwave affecting Andalusia this week to pass. If it continues, production forecasts will be considerably reduced,' he warned.
Generational renewal also featured prominently in the discussions. Sebastián González Lineros, provincial secretary of COAG Sevilla, flagged the shortage of new entrants as a key constraint on the modernization of olive groves, while Antonio Martín Melero, mayor of La Puebla de Cazalla, stressed that the municipality is committed to 'technology so that the olive groves of the future can be more profitable.'
Beyond diagnosis, the roundtable showcased a series of practical solutions. Gabriel Beltrán Maza, senior researcher at IFAPA Centro Venta del Llano, presented promising results from adding enzymes during the olive-mashing process to improve extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) quality. The research has been presented at the European level, with hopes that the use of certain enzymes in EVOO extraction will be re-authorized.
Teresa Molina Cobo, product manager at BIO LAINCO, introduced Droopy, a natural biostimulant designed to facilitate olive fruit detachment at harvest, while Alfonso Gómez Porras, director and marketing director at Todolivo, presented new high-productivity varieties developed through the company's genetic improvement program.
Water management also took center stage. Antonio Hoyas Pablo, technical manager for Western Andalusia at Caudal, stressed that Spain must invest in irrigation technologies that enable water regeneration and reuse, noting that 'only 2% of Spain's water is regenerated.' Caudal also presented functionalized pipes designed to address some of the challenges linked to using regenerated water.
Sustainability innovations already deployed in the field were highlighted by Obdulia Parra Rivero, R&D&I specialist at Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias de Andalucía, who shared videos from the Choice Programme demonstrating the impact of sensor technology and ground covers in olive groves.
The discussion also turned to international competition. Participants acknowledged that Spanish producers rank among the world's best, but warned that promotional efforts to differentiate Andalusian olive production from international rivals remain insufficient. Producers in Egypt and Turkey, which benefit from lower labor costs and, in some cases, less stringent phytosanitary controls, are forcing Spanish growers to cut prices at origin and squeeze margins further.
'We are the world's leading power in olive oil production, but we have a lot to improve as entrepreneurs,' said Gabriel Cabello López. Ángel Abellán Hernández, export sales manager at Oleand Manzanilla Olive, struck a similar note, noting that some olive-growing regions are competing with Egypt and Turkey despite the latter's lower production costs. 'But we have to find a way to differentiate ourselves,' he added.
Closing the event, Gissele Falcón Haro, managing director of Siete Agromarketing, underscored the value of industry forums in tackling structural challenges. 'The major challenges facing the sector cannot be addressed through isolated perspectives. We need to listen, connect capabilities and turn knowledge into decisions,' she said.
Source: Global Agriculture