Olives

What it is

Table olives are fruits of the cultivated olive tree that have been debittered and preserved by natural fermentation or by heat.¹ According to ripeness at harvest, the trade standard of the International Olive Council distinguishes green olives, picked before colouring, olives turning colour, and black olives, picked when fully ripe or shortly before.² Green olives range in colour from green to straw yellow, olives turning colour from rosé to brown, and black olives from reddish black through deep violet to chestnut brown.³

Where it comes from

A single variety predominates in Morocco: farmers call it zitoun or zitoun beldi, “the olive tree” or “the native olive tree”, and the technical services of the Ministry of Agriculture call it Picholine marocaine.⁴ It accounts for at least 92 per cent of the trees, in the old, traditional groves as well as in modern plantations in the north, centre and south-west of the country; other varieties such as Bouchouk, Hamrani, Meslala or Dahbia grow only here and there, mostly in the north.⁵ It spread because it supplies oil and table olives at the same time, adapts to many sites and its oil does not solidify in the cold.⁶ Harrell’s 1966 dictionary of Moroccan Arabic records zitun for olive and olive tree, zituni for olive green and fitur for the sediment of olive oil.⁷ In southern Morocco, Lagdim Soussi counts the olive tree, along with peach, argan, orange and fig, among the cultivated trees; meat there is browned in olive or argan oil.⁸

In the 2017/2018 season the Fez-Meknes region harvested just over a million tonnes of olives, most of them in the province of Taounate; four fifths went to the oil mills, 13 per cent to own consumption and 5.6 per cent to canning.⁹ According to a 2016 study, the largest exporter of table olives is the Marrakesh-Tensift-Al Haouz region, with about 70,000 tonnes a year.¹⁰ The country’s olive-growing area grew from 760,000 hectares in 2008 to 980,000 hectares in 2014.¹¹

History

The olive tree was domesticated in the eastern Mediterranean; in the Roman province of Mauretania Tingitana the most important olive-growing areas lay around Volubilis, Lixus and Tingis, today’s Tangier.¹² The Picholine marocaine probably arose from crosses between a cultivated form introduced from the east and wild olive trees of the western Mediterranean, in southern Spain or north-western Morocco.¹³ As Arab geographers attest, it reached Marrakesh from the 12th century, and the Souss and Sijilmassa from the 17th century; it was planted on a massive scale during the Protectorate period and after independence.¹⁴

The variety has borne its trade name since the years 1957 to 1960: after the winter of 1956 in southern France, large quantities of Moroccan table olives came onto the French market as “Picholine marocaine”, after the French variety Picholine.¹⁵ Despite the name, it differs clearly from that variety in shape, growing characteristics and genetic make-up.¹⁶

How it is made

The bitterness can be removed by an alkaline treatment, by soaking in water or by biological processes; the olives are then preserved in brine, in dry salt, by heat or with acidifying agents.¹⁷ The standard distinguishes treated olives, which ferment in brine after the lye, natural olives, which go into the brine untreated, and olives that have been dehydrated and shrivelled in dry salt or by heat.¹⁸ Cracked olives are whole fruits whose flesh is broken open without breaking the stone.¹⁹

Morocco’s first protected designation of origin is for an olive oil: “Tyout Chiadma” from the province of Essaouira, first produced in 2009.²⁰ Order No. 2817-09 of 20 November 2009 (Bulletin officiel No. 5806 of 21 January 2010) restricts it to olives from trees on both banks of the Oued Tyout that are irrigated from the Sidi Rabie spring.²¹ The harvest runs from October to December, no more than 48 hours may pass between harvesting and pressing, and grinding and malaxing are done with stone mills.²²