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Portuguese olive oil
Olives have been cultivated in the region where Portugal is today for longer than Portugal’s existence as a country. Although it is though that the existence is earlier than the Romans certainly at that time olives were grown and olive oil was produced in where today is Portugal. Currently a remarkable dinamism in the establishment of new plantations and in the improvement from the management practices is being seen in Portugal. Most of the Portuguese olives are used for olive oil production just around 5 % of the total are used to be eaten as table olives.
In Portugal if we travel from South to North we will find different olives and olive oils. Those will come not only from traditional olive cultivars but also from introduced varieties. There are around 139 olive varieties distributed over 23 countries. Portuguese olive cultivars are seven: carrasquenha, cobrançosa, cordovil-de-castelo-branco, cordovil-de-serpa, maçanilha algarvia, galega vulgar and redondal. Some of the introduced olive cultivars come from Spain including arbequina, hojiblanca and picual.
In Portugal the virgin olive oil , which is the oil obtained from olives using mechanical or physical processes that do not treat or alter the oil in any way, is the used in a larger extent which reflects higher requirements from the consumers. The best Portuguese olive oils stand up in quality to the best that the rest of the world has to offer. Portugal exports roughly a third of its olive oil production. Brazil is the country that imports the largest share of Portuguese olive oil.
Tags: Food, Made in Portugal