History of the oil
The first byproducts date to the year 2.500 b.C., gathered in clay Mycenaean tablets during King Minos’s reign. This comes to show the importance of olive oil in Cretan economy.
Likewise, it is known that olive trees were extremely important to the Greeks, since we can find measures to protect them, improve and favour their farming in their legislation.
Later, the Romans would be great olive and olive oil consumers; these products came from what it is nowadays known as Andalusia. This operations allowed the expansion of oil coming from Hispania throughout the roman empire, and extending oil farming to Guadalquivir valley, Sierra Morena and Ebro and Tajo valleys.
Olive oil also had an important role in the Visigoth culture, with important progress in olivicultura, highlighting the abundance of olive tree plantations in Guadalquivir valley during the first centuries of the Arab culture.
During the subsequent centuries, olive farming played an important role in the Spanish economy, having found olive trees almost everywhere in the Iberian geography.
In the 19th century, with the introduction of the railroad, farming areas expanded towards the center of the peninsula. Nowadays, olive farming continues expanding thanks to the new advances in olivicultura, especially with intensive watering plantations, improving the quality of the product.
In Spain there are 282 million olive trees, 170+ million of which are found only in Andalusia.
Esta entrada también está disponible en: Spanish