The Olive Industry of Spain

F SOME malignant little sprite should wave a fairy wand over the f ace of the earth and cause all the olive trees thereon, except those in Spain, to blight and fade away, in 20 years Spain could meet the world demand for olive oil; in 5, she would be able to supply the total market in non-producing countries. Spain, today, is the largest producer and exporter of olives and olive oil in the world. Since 1917-18 she produced, on the average, over one-half of the world's supply of olive oil, and in 192728 and 1929-30 she exceeded, by nearly a million quintals, not only the usual average but the total production of the rest of the world for those years. For the last ten years the provinces of Jaen and Cordova, alone, normally have produced more annually than the Italian average for the same period. Spain has over 52 per cent (2,062,000) of the olive acreage and 67 per cent of the producing trees in the world. Olive acreage ranks second only to cereals in Spain, taking 13 per cent of the land in productive crops in 1933. In agricultural income the olives do not rank so high. In 1932-33, of the total agricultural income 44 per cent came from cereals, 10 from tubers, bulbs, etc., 8 from fruits, 7 from grapes, and 5 from olives. The ratio was about the same in 1931. In 1930 the olive traded places with legumes and came in sixth. This was an alternating year when the trees were recuperating from the burst of production which brought the olive into third place in 1929. On the average the olive stands a strong fifth in agricultural income with 6 to 7 hundred million pesetas a year. DEVELOPMENT OF THE OLIVE INDUSTRY IN SPAIN

Business · Economic geography · Geography · Historical and socio-economic studies of Spain and related regions

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