An Elixir for Development? Olive Oil Policies and Poverty Alleviation in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

The evolution of olive oil markets has sparked interest in policies that promote olive oil as a means of inducing rural development across the Middle East and North Africa. This article describes policies that link olive oil markets to rural development in Morocco, Syria and Tunisia and evaluate their effectiveness. It uses a framework that combines producer heterogeneity and market differentiation to describe how rural poverty impacts will be shaped by production, quality and marketing constraints. While the flow of olive oil from producers to the market may have increased, that of information and incentives in the reverse direction is still limited, something that too few olive oil policies aim to improve.

Forecasting Global Developments and Challenges in Olive Oil Supply and Demand: A Delphi Survey from Spain

“…In this context, the global production of olive oil has experienced a progressive growth over the past two decades in response to the increasing public and private interest in the product. Extensive economic and technical efforts have been engaged in restructuring the existing plantations and the establishment of new orchards in many olive-growing countries, along with the improvement of the cultural and harvesting practices and the modernization of production processes [2,6,8,9]. These efforts impacted positively production, and resulted in substantial gains in productivity and quality standards.…”

“…Effective planning in agri-food markets is heavily reliant on the accuracy and consistency of supply and demand forecasts, and olive oil is no exception. In the olive sector, predicting future developments in global supply and demand is a highly relevant topic [1][2][3][4] where there is a lack of comprehensive, consistent, and consensual estimates at the international level. Dedicated academic studies that develop forecasts addressing the entire relevant countries and major critical factors in the olive oil global market remain scarce, resulting in substantial uncertainties and discrepancies in this domain.…”

Analysis of Olive Oil Market Volatility Using the Arch and Garch Techniques

“…In addition, olive trees are frequently grown in disfavoured regions. Combining these two factors, the olive tree could play a central role in any public policy for the development of poor/disfavoured regions and their sustainable development, boosting their long-term income (Lybbert and Elabed, 2013). As the consumption of olive oil in nontraditional markets (particularly North Europe, USA and Canada) has increased substantially (Kalogeras et al, 2009), potential new producers have the opportunity to play a role in the olive oil market.…”

“…The volatility and price reaction of the main vegetable oils in the face of positive and negative supply and demand shocks are important parameters for making decisions regarding public policies and for the formulation of private investment in the field of agriculture. Protecting producers and agents involved in the supply chain of olive oil is extremely important, as this sector generates employment and income, as well as quality of life by virtue of its consumption, as postulated by Beauchamp et al (2005) and Lybbert and Elabed (2013).…”

Biocultural Diversity in Europe

“…As such, cultivated olive provides a model to design sustainable rain-fed systems for the semiarid Africa (Pasternak 2001), including regions such as the Sahel (Pasternak and Schlissel 2001). Olive culture historically played an important role in rural development and poverty alleviation in marginal areas across the Middle East and North Africa (Lybbert and Elabed 2013) and parts of Europe . Economic and social viability and persistence of this well-documented cosmopolitan agroecosystem have important implications for preventing and ameliorating desertification that is a major environmental threat to the whole Mediterranean region (Mtaita et al 2001;Geeson et al 2002;Schröter et al 2005;de Graaff et al 2010de Graaff et al , 2011 under global climate change.…”