About olives and olive oil

Olives are the most extensively cultivated fruit in the world's temperate zones, surpassing even grapes. World production reached 35 billion pounds by 2002, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization. Produced in 39 countries on more than 20 million acres, olives are grown for table use and for olive oil, a product in use since the third millennium BCE.

Olive trees have appealing gray-green evergreen foliage and reportedly live up to 1,000 years, tolerating draught conditions, and alkaline and saline soil, but they will not endure flooding or high humidity. This makes them perfect for the hot, dry, Mediterranean climate. Farmers grow trees in orchards, many of them several hundred years old. An olive tree still grows in Albania that was reputedly planted by the national hero, Skanderbeg, in the 15th century.

Growers usually harvest table olives when they are green or are just beginning to turn purple or black. Olives are left on the trees to ripen longer in order to produce olive oil. Naturally bitter, most harvested olives are soaked in a lye solution to improve the flavor. Milder-flavored olives may be soaked in brine instead.

Ninety percent of the more than 2 million metric tons of olive oil produced annually in the world is used in its country of origin. Spain is the leading producer, followed by Italy, Greece, Turkey, and Syria. Although 29 countries make olive oil, these five countries account for 80 percent of world production. The United States industry, located in Californias central valley region, produces valley region, produces less than 1 percent of total global olive oil. Wholesalers here import both the oil and olives for table use to satisfy demand.

The widespread recognition of olive oil as a healthy source of fat in the diet has made it increasingly popular, especially in the United States and Japan, leading to increased production.