OLIVE OILS AND HEALTH 8 The olive oil sector is a key part of Spain’s agri-food system. In numbers, Spain is the world’s leading producer and exporter of olive oil, with an average annual production of 1.4 million tonnes, 44% of total world output, and exports of more than two-thirds of what it produces, averaging 1 million tonnes per year. Alongside its economic weight, the sector has great social, environmental, and territorial significance. Spain has more than 2.7 million hectares of olive groves, accounting for 15.1% of all cultivated land. This is a production with a strong social, territorial, landscape, and cultural component, especially in the case of traditional olive groves. Some 330,000 farmers are engaged in olive growing, generating around 32 million workdays annually. The sector supports an important industrial network in rural areas, with 1,831 olive mills, 1,763 packaging plants, and 63 pomace oil factories, providing around 15,000 industrial jobs. And, as the icing on the cake, olive oil is Spain’s third most-exported agri-food product, reaching over 150 countries, worth more than €3.1 billion, and generating a positive trade balance of €2.6 billion. We should not forget the environmental role of olive cultivation, particularly in combating climate change: through its capacity to fix carbon; its contribution to biodiversity by harbouring a wide variety of plant and animal species; and its role in the circular economy and bioeconomy through the full utilisation of its by-products, supported by a significant processing industry. Olive oil is also gold for the environment where it is produced. Olive oil is, therefore, a product as healthy for people as it is for the land and the economy of our country. As Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, I wish to emphasise the values and qualities that virgin olive oil production and consumption contribute to our Mediterranean culture. This is necessary and complementary information to that provided in this volume by a large group of experts and scientists, who present all the benefits this product offers for our personal health. The Government of Spain, through the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food, is determined to strengthen our country’s leadership in the production of this food, which has been part of our environment for millennia but remains little known in many other parts of the world. In fact, of all the added fats consumed globally, olive oil accounts for barely 3%. It continues to be a great unknown which, in exercising our leadership, we must bring to the attention of the rest of the world. prologues
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