Press conference for World Olive Day

Here at the International Olive Council, we celebrate World Olive Day every year. ‘This year,’ however, as Executive Director Abdellatif Ghedira pointed out, ‘is a bit different. 2020 is the first anniversary of World Olive Day’s creation by UNESCO.’

To celebrate this event, the IOC has organised an international seminar entitled ‘The future of the olive sector’. The seminar will be held by videoconference, noted Jaime Lillo, the Deputy Executive Director who led the press conference announcing the event with simultaneous interpretation into Arabic, English, French, Italian and Spanish. The seminar will take place from 10.30am to 5pm on Thursday 26 November.

Authorities and prominent personalities from all over the world have been invited to this event to speak about their areas of expertise, including world-renowned politicians and researchers. We begin with the institutional greetings of four ministers who will address our guests:

Luis Planas, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Spain
Akissa Bahri, the Minister of Agriculture, Water Resources and Fisheries, Tunisia
Al Sayed Elkosayer, the Minister of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, Egypt
Levan Davitashili, the Minister of Environment Protection and Agriculture, Georgia
Miguel Clüsener-God, Directort of Ecological and Earth Sciences, UNESCO

Then we will move onto the more technical side of the event, with speeches from a wide range of experts and important figures:

Olive oil and health – Dr Miguel Ángel Martínez González, University of Navarra, Spain
The history of olive oil – Prof. Jorge Enrique Pereira, International consultant on olive growing and olive oil technology, Uruguay
The future of the olive market – Juan Vilar, Strategy consultant on olive oil, Spain
What are the quality standards of olive oil? – Angelo Faberi, Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry Policies, Italy
The impact of covid-19 on the consumption of olive oil in the United States – Joseph R. Profaci, Executive Director of the North American Olive Oil Association, USA
Olive Oil and the Plant-Forward Kitchen – Greg Drescher, Vice-President of Strategic Initiatives and Industry Leadership at the Culinary Institute of America

We have also added a special section to the programme to celebrate women in olive oil. Three speakers will join us from Italy, Jordan and the United States to talk about initiatives to highlight women’s role in the olive sector.

Women are the future of olive oil

Loriana Abbruzzetti, President of Pandolea International, Italy
Nehaya Al-Muhaisin, Arabic International/Jordanian Olive Oil Women’s Network, Jordan
Jill Myers, Founder of Women in Olive Oil ™ International Movement, USA.

At the end of these speeches, the Executive Secretariat will have the pleasure of awarding the prizes for the winners of the Mario Solinas Quality Award, the international competition organised by the IOC to find the best extra virgin olive oils.

Here’s to this important event on 26 November: we look forward to seeing our participants connect from all over the world via IOC headquarters in Madrid.

All contributions from the experts and the agenda of the event can be found below. Enjoy!

Séminaire JMO EN

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