Catalan olive tree varieties

Authors

  • Antònia Ninot Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Mas de Bover, Constantí
  • Werner Howad Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Centre de Recerca en Agrigenòmica CSIC-IRTA-UAB-UB, Bellaterra (Cerdanyola del Vallès)
  • Agustí Romero Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), Mas de Bover, Constantí

Keywords:

Olea europaea L., olivera, germoplasma, oli, conservació, variabilitat, caracterització.

Abstract

In Catalonia the olive tree holds first place among woody plants in terms of cultivated area, with a stabilised total of about 110,000 hectares despite the drop in recent years. Garrigues and Baix Ebre are the regions with the most cultivated area of olive trees, followed by Montsià. The yearly Catalan olive oil production of 30-40,000 tons is mostly obtained from five varieties, namely Arbequina, Morruda, Sevillenca, Empeltre and Farga. The standardization of olive oils in many districts has led to an interest in exploring minority and native local varieties in several areas in a clear attempt to mark differences between territories as a strategy for making these areas known for typical high-quality products. Catalonia is rich in biodiversity and more than eighty IRTA-identified olive tree varieties make it possible for the differential quality strategy to succeed. In addition to the traditional varieties which are cultivated, there are other varieties of great interest from the standpoint of quality and nutritional value. IRTA (Institute for Agri-food Research and Technology) has carried out a mayor task of recovery, conservation and characterization of these local varieties. The Germplasm Bank of Catalan Olive Varieties located in Constantí (Tarragonès region) attends to the preservation and characterization of Catalan genetic resources. This paper makes a review of the existing variability in Catalonia in both geographic and varietal, genetic and agronomic terms, and of the characteristics of the olive oils produced from the most representative Catalan varieties.

Keywords: Olea europaea L., olive tree, germplasm, olive oil, preservation, variability, characterization.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Downloads

Issue

No. 46: Juny 2019

Section

Articles

License

The intellectual property of articles belongs to the respective authors.

On submitting articles for publication to the journal QUADERNS AGRARIS, authors accept the following terms:

  1. Authors assign to ICEA (a subsidiary of Institut d’Estudis Catalans) the rights of reproduction, communication to the public and distribution of the articles submitted for publication to QUADERNS AGRARIS.
  2. Authors answer to ICEA for the authorship and originality of submitted articles.
  3. Authors are responsible for obtaining permission for the reproduction of all graphic material included in articles.
  4. ICEA declines all liability for the possible infringement of intellectual property rights by authors.
  5. The contents published in the journal, unless otherwise stated in the text or in the graphic material, are subject to a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (by-nc-nd) 3.0 Spain licence, the complete text of which may be found at  http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/es/deed.en. Consequently, the general public is authorised to reproduce, distribute and communicate the work, provided that its authorship and the body publishing it are acknowledged, and that no commercial use and no derivative works are made of it.
  6. The journal QUADERNS AGRARIS is not responsible for the ideas and opinions expressed by the authors of the published articles.