The superb quality of Spanish olives are appreciated the world over because of the special production techniques that Spanish farmers have developed. These combine long acquired traditional knowledge passed down through families with the best modern technology.

There are two different production processes, one for green olives and one for black olives.

Once picked, green olives are first treated to remove their bitter taste and prepare them for lactic fermentation. After washing, they are put into brine to ferment. This turns them into edible fruit.

The olives are then classified and pitted, sliced, stuffed or simply packed as whole olives.

Black olives are immediately conserved in brine. After that they are classified into different sizes.

Spain is not only the leading producer and distributor of olives, it has also been able to create a remarkable industrial system with its own sophisticated technology. This system allows for the Spanish olive sector to provide a healthy and nutritive product with an efficient service to satisfy the requirements of consumers all over the world.

According to the last statistics, Spain produced 556.000 tonnes during 2007/2008, which is 30.49% of the world production of olives.

Presently, 60% of the total production is exported to more than 100 countries. The remaining 40% is commercialised in Spain where households consume 75%; restaurants and the hotel industry consume the remaining 25%.