Welcome to the International Oil Council (IOC) and to its website about the olive tree and its produce.

Besides this brief introduction, the site features other sections that will take you through the world of olive growing and tell you all about this age-old crop.

You will learn about the international steps taken to increase the returns obtained from this generous tree, the source of income for over 12 million people around the world, as well as about the measures taken to raise product quality and to find new consumption markets.

The olive oil market is a distinctive market whose development is influenced heavily by factors such as the geographical location of olive growing in areas that are subject to cyclical periods of drought.

Olive production is distinctive too, being characterised by an alternating pattern of large and small crops and ensuing price instability. Remedies were needed to these problems, making it necessary to take international action just over fifty years ago to modernise and promote olive growing and olive products and to draw up norms and procedures for the sector.

Thus, an idea took shape: for all the countries with interests in olive growing to join forces and set up an international forum where the necessary measures could be taken to ease the problems on the world olive oil market and to boost and develop the market.

And so the first International Olive Oil Agreement materialised in 1956, leading, in turn, to the creation of the International Olive Council.

This international, intergovernmental organisation, which was set up in 1959 to look after the interests of the olive tree, has its headquarters in Madrid, Spain.

The other sections of this website provide detailed information about the Agreement, the Council and what it does, and I hope that it will help browsers to discover and delve into the vast, fascinating world of the olive.