Extra virgin olive oil is considered a basic need and a healthy product, especially for the people living in the Mediterranean basin. It’s a sign of culture, almost a part of the idiosyncrasy. The partners of ARTOLIO, who also happen to be Mediterraneans, understand that an effort must be made to transmit this message outside the Basin, to the rest of the world. It is, therefore, necessary to start from the very bottom, with the local farmers, so that their goal is to obtain maximum quality extra virgin olive oil that can be sold all over the world, precisely because of its quality, because the taste would speak for itself.

Agronomic and technological researcher Inmaculada Olivares Merino is one of the ARTOLIO partners working with the Spanish team the university of Jaen. Her goal is to encourage all of the above; it is her philosophy of work. Her role within the project is to help farmers advance on the cultivation of olive groves to improve the quality of their extra virgin olive oil. This entails control of irrigation, fertilization or fertirrigation (taking leaves samples). Prior to the campaign, taking olives samples, the parameters of these fruit are determined in order to determinate the optimum harvest time.

To achieve the Spanish team’s goals before the harvest time, there have been different info days aimed at tutoring the farmers on the correct procedures:

-        INFORMATION DAY January 28, 2021

An online meeting to report on the objectives of the ARTOLIO project ‘Profitable and Sustainable Artisanal Olive Oil Industry in the Mediterranean’.

-        FIRST TRAINING DAY July 22, 2021

Online meeting on agronomic and technological factors in the production of olive oil`.

-        OLIVE LEAVES’ SAMPLING August, 2021

From taking olive leaves samples, each farmer was given a report referring to the chemical determinations as well as the equilibrium relationships between the different elements.

-        INFORMATION DAY September 2, 2021

Meeting farmers and miller in the olive mill.

-        OLIVE SAMPLING à September-November, 2021

An optimal follow-up of the fruit that is carried out from its entry in the olive mill and to the extraction process.

“My start in this great project, ARTOLIO, began at the beginning of the year 2021. It has been so intense and constructive that it does not seem like time has passed. In the first place, the great effort of our farmers to achieve an improvement in the quality of the olive oils obtained must be mentioned: it is already something significant. A daily effort was required, but we were there every step of the way, and they responded in kind. We are very proud of our time and their progress.” However, like many other partners in the project, Inmaculada thinks there should be an extension, to fully assess the marketing impact of the quality oil that has been achieved these last two years.