EU Project to Increase Productivity in the Olive and Olive Oil Sector

Providing information about the goals of the OASIS Project, Aegean Olive and Olive Oil Exporters' Association President Emre Uygun underlined that the main goal is to train SMEs operating in the olive and olive oil production sector in the Aegean Basin on sustainable practices, support technologies that will increase raw material efficiency, and develop strategies that will create resilience against climate change and external factors.

A competitive marketplace will be created

Uygun, who informed that Turkey ranked first in the world with a yield of 2024 thousand tons in table olive production in the 25/750 season, and second in the world after Spain with a yield of 475 thousand tons in olive oil, said, “With the OASIS Project, it is aimed to strengthen the food supply chain, reduce production costs and create a competitive marketplace for both businesses and consumers by focusing on reducing food waste and optimizing resource use throughout the production process of businesses with pressing facilities in the table olive and olive oil sector. We invite our olive and olive oil businesses with table olive processing and olive oil pressing units to take part in this project.”

Uygun stated that in the "Innovative and Sustainable Clustering in the Olive Value Chain (OASIS) Project," companies will undergo sustainability assessments and their current resource efficiency will be analyzed. He continued: "Based on the current situation analyses, free training and consultancy services will be provided to support them in making their production processes more efficient. Training topics will include circular production, resource efficiency, digital transformation, green transformation, and smart farming technologies. SMEs with best practice examples will be identified and their awareness and promotion will be ensured across the EU. Matching activities will be carried out between SMEs and institutions participating from Italy, Spain, and Turkey. The project's target group consists of 150 SMEs in total, 50 from each country, operating in the table olive and olive oil production sector. Activities to be carried out for the target group within the scope of the project include researching 10 previously implemented and completed best practice examples and presenting them as exemplary roadmaps to SMEs, organizing 25 different training sessions on various themes for 150 SMEs, and preventing food waste and increasing efficient resource use." The aim is to determine the measures to be taken, to ensure the adaptation of the use of new technologies, and to create a more competitive and resilient market environment that will reduce production and shipping costs by developing new strategies in this field.

The “Innovative and Sustainable Clusters in the Olive Value Chain (OASIS) Project,” which was awarded funding under the Single Market Programme (SMP COSME) by the European Innovation Council and the SME Executive Agency (EISMEA), is being implemented by a consortium coordinated by the Izmir Commodity Exchange in Turkey, in collaboration with the Izmir Agricultural Technology Center (İTTM), Centro Tecnológico Nacional de la Conserva – CTNC (National Food and Canning Technology Center), Camara De Comercio e Industria Italiana Para Espana – CCIS (Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Spain), CIHAEM Bari (Mediterranean Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Bari), and Unioncamere Puglia (Association of Chambers of Commerce of the Puglia Region).

Source: HORECA TREND and Aegean Exporters' Associations