Olive Oil

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, olives are the most extensively cultivated temperate fruit crop in the world; the area of olive groves exceeds that of vineyards. Around 90 per cent of the harvest is destined for oil, with Spain, Italy, and Greece between them responsible for over 75 per cent of world production and Syria, Turkey, and Tunisia contributing an additional 15 per cent. Newer producers such as California, Australia, and Argentina are virtually insignificant on a global scale. World production of olive oil has expanded by about 60 per cent over the ten years to 2004, with consumption increasing at approximately the same rate.