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The Executive Director of the International Olive Council, Mr Abdellatif Ghedira, was received on 4 October 2016 by Mr Khalid S.M. Edokale, Minister Counsellor of the Embassy of Libya.
During his visit, Mr Ghedira highlighted Libya’s importance within the IOC as one of its founding members. Libya has an olive acreage of 20 500 hectares, of which 95% are rain-fed. It produces an average of 15 500 tonnes of olive oil and 3000 tonnes of table olives a year.
The Executive Director provided the Minister Counsellor with an overview of the new International Agreement on Olive Oil and Table Olives, 2015, indicating that member countries had been invited to deposit their instruments of ratification of the new Agreement with the Depositary (the UN in New York) before the end of 2016 or, where this was not possible, to submit a notification of its provisional implementation of the Agreement as of 1 January 2017.
The Executive Director also informed the Minister Counsellor of upcoming courses, workshops and meetings (namely the 104th session of the Council of Members from 22 to 25 November) and of the IOC programme for the recognition of physico-chemical test laboratories and tasting panels. He furthermore indicated that the IOC will award grants to its member countries for the organisation of celebrations in connection with World Olive Day on 26 November.
For his part, the Minister Counsellor of the Embassy of Libya reiterated his country’s interest in the Organisation and thanked the IOC Executive Director for his visit. He indicated that his Embassy would transmit the information regarding the ratification of the Agreement to the competent Libyan authorities.
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