Olive oil, known as "liquid gold", is increasingly entering the kitchens of Chinese people. In the public mind, olive oil relies on imports. However, the market share of domestically produced olive oil is quietly catching up, especially olive oil from Longnan, Gansu Province, becoming the leader.
Olive oil that has been passed down for thousands of years
Although both olives and oleifera have "olive" in their names, they are completely different in taxonomy. Olives belong to the family Olivaceae and are native varieties native to southeastern China. Olive oil belongs to the family Oleaceae, the same family as Osmanthus. It has been introduced to China for less than a hundred years and is a completely foreign plant.
The olive branch that symbolizes peace is the olive, and olive oil also comes from the fruit of the olive tree.
Since ancient Greece, people have gradually mastered the method of pressing oil from olive fruits. The extracted oil is not only used for food, but also for skin care and religious rituals. In the ancient Olympic Games, athletes would smear their bodies with olive oil, which not only showed their physical strength but also protected their skin. Later, olive oil spread along the Mediterranean, supported by trade, cultural exchange and navigation.
After thousands of years, the most mainstream way of eating olives has not changed, and its oil is rich in monounsaturated fatty acids and polyphenolic antioxidants, and is regarded as a high-quality source of oil.
From imported products to local implementation
Olive oil has become popular in China in recent years, but our relationship with olive oil occurred in the 1960s.
In 1964, Albania, a country on the eastern Mediterranean coast, donated tens of thousands of olive saplings to China, and they were distributed to Yunnan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, Guangdong, Guangxi and other places. Over the next decade or so, the planting scope of olive saplings in the country continued to expand.
Today, the Longnan region of Gansu Province stands out from various production areas and has not only become the largest olive cultivation and production area in the country, but its processed olive oil has also gained international recognition in the industry. In the 2023 Berlin Global Olive Oil Award (Berlin GOOA) competition, the organic extra virgin olive oil samples submitted by Longnan stood out among more than 800 samples submitted by more than 30 countries and won 2 gold awards and 1 silver award.
Picture | "Focus Interview"
The unique advantages of Longnan production area
The Bailongjiang River Valley in Wudu County, Longnan is very suitable for the growth of olives. Protected by the Qinling Mountains in the northeast and the Minshan Mountains in the southwest, the valley has warm winters, hot summers, dryness and little rain. This microclimate is similar to the climate of the Mediterranean region where olives are native.
In addition, olives along the Bailong River are widely planted in areas below 1,500 meters above sea level. This altitude creates a moderate temperature difference between day and night, which is conducive to the accumulation of oil inside the olive fruit.
In addition, the soil in this area is alkaline, has strong air permeability, and is rich in trace elements, which is especially suitable for the growth of olive tree root systems. These geographical and climatic characteristics have established the advantages of growing olives in Wudu County.
Picture丨"World Finance"
Thanks to the efforts of scientific researchers, in 1997, olives became one of the four characteristic forest and fruit industries in Longnan. In 1998, a new Chinese production area was added to the "World Olive Distribution Map" released by the International Olive Council, and Longnan was marked as a first-class suitable area for the first time.
Today, the total area of olives planted in Longnan has exceeded 1 million acres, accounting for half of the country's total planting area. The fresh fruit production of this production area accounts for 60% of the country's total fresh olive fruit production.
Big industrial upgrade
Behind the brilliant achievements is the accumulation of hard work from generation to generation of scientific researchers, the continuously improving planting skills of local growers, and the development promotion of local industrial companies.
After years of visits, scientific researchers selected 85 saplings with better quality from the more than 8 million olive trees they learned about. Longnan introduced 121 new varieties from home and abroad, making Longnan City not only the largest olive germplasm resource bank in the country, but also the database with the largest collection in Asia.
In 2022, olive seeds from Longnan also flew in space for six months on board the Shenzhou 14 spacecraft to help solve the current problems of delayed breeding of new varieties, severe degradation of imported varieties, and low and unstable yields.
At the same time, scientific researchers formulated 10 technical standards for olive oil seedlings, cultivation technology, low-yield garden transformation, pruning, high-quality replacement, pest and disease control, fruit harvesting, fresh fruit quality grading, olive oil preparation technology, and virgin olive oil quality in Gansu Province.
Our country has also launched the national standard for the production of olive oil GB/T 23347-2021, and local olive oil products have gradually begun to circulate on the market.
According to the national standard, locally produced olive oil is divided into virgin olive oil, refined olive oil and mixed olive oil.
Virgin olive oil extracts oil directly from the olive fruit. The processing mode is to extract it through mechanical and physical methods without going through high temperature and organic solvent leaching and refining;
The raw material of refined olive oil comes from the virgin olive pomace. The pomace is pressed multiple times to produce oil. The refining method mostly uses refining processes such as organic solvent leaching or high-temperature heating;
Blend olive oil is a blend of refined and virgin olive oil.
If you want to choose local olive oil, you can screen the quality of the oil through virgin pressing, refining, and mixing. If you choose extra virgin, you need to pay attention to the harvest period of the olives on the label. The fresher the better. In addition, acidity is also one of the indicators for judging extra virgin and virgin. The acidity of the former should not exceed 0.8%, and that of the latter should not exceed 2.0%.
With the joint efforts of industry, academia and research, this olive tree, which has symbolized peace and unity in ancient history, is growing a new story in China.
References
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[2] "Current situation, trends and countermeasures of innovation-driven development of China's olive industry 》https://wenku.baidu.com/view/5b0baf623f1ec5da50e2524de518964bcf84d267.html?fr=income4 -doc-search&_wkts_=1739005250291&wkQuery=%E9%82%93%E7%85%9C+%E6%B2%B9%E6%A9%84%E6%A6%84
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[4] "When will the olive oil price increase?" | my country’s olive oil imports have dropped sharply》https://www.oilcn.com/article/2022/12/12_86261.html
[5] "60 years!" Olive oil “joins” Chinese oil” https://m.thepaper.cn/baijiahao_26526747
[6] ""Without the scientific and technological support of the Academy of Forestry, there would be no olive oil in Wudu today"" (https://www.caf.ac.cn/info/1221/10696.htm
[7] "Developing Olive Oil" http://www.lnwdzx.gov.cn/node/111
[8] "Looking for Longnan's Talented Talents | Devoting oneself to olive green and bravely being an innovative practitioner - Deng Yu, deputy director of the Municipal Economic Forestry Research Institute and director of the Olive Oil Research Institute" https://www.sohu.com/a/195612763_100034559
[9] "The Most Beautiful Longnan Olive Season—Olive Olive Picking on the Bailongjiang River" http://www.wudu.gov.cn/html/2016/wdkx_1114/3749.html
[10] "Xiangyu: Little Olives Benefit Longnan People" http://www.xiangyuganlanyou.com/col_hyzx/202412/C1CAF98857A97C095C69EE5F9B09A8FB.htm