The Soil O-Live project has presented the I International Soil O-Live Competition: Soil Health & Olive Oil Quality Awards 2024, the first competition in the world to assess not only the quality of olive oils but also the health of olive grove soils. This competition is held within the framework of the European project of the same name, Soil O-Live, financed 100% by the European Union, coordinated by the University of Jaén (UJA) and which aims to raise awareness and analyse the health of the soils of Mediterranean olive groves.
While different competitions value the quality of organic AOVES, this new Soil O-Live competition will specifically value and reward the quality of AOVEs that present a high quality of soil health, based on the criterion of soil respiration.
This is precisely one of the main parameters of the new Soil Monitoring Act, which is in its final stages of adoption by the European Parliament and is a key objective of the European Union’s Soil Mission. The new Soil O-Live competition is thus aligned with the EU Soil Protection Strategy, which sets out the long-term vision of achieving good soil health by 2050 and making soil protection, sustainable use and restoration the norm, proposing a combination of voluntary and legislative measures to achieve these goals.
This first edition of the competition will be a pilot experience and will be limited to the 52 farms participating in the Soil O-Live project. Next year, participation will be open to olive farms and commercial partners who wish to participate.
The competition will be divided into two distinct evaluation phases. Firstly, the Soil O-Live scientific committee will analyse until mid-May the five replicate soil samples from each olive grove where the olive oil has been produced. The Committee will provide the results to the Competition Jury and the orchards with the best Basal Soil Respiration will qualify for the final phase of the Olive Oil Tasting.
The quality tasting will take place in the second half of May, at Deoleo’s facilities in Alcolea, by a jury made up of specialised and prestigious experts from institutions such as IFAPA, the University of Jaén, Deoleo and the University Institute for Research in Olive Oil and Olive Oils (INUO-UJA).
There will be three prizes for the best olive oils from healthy soils and the Jury’s decision, with the corresponding prize-giving ceremony, will be announced at a public event.
During the presentation of the competition, held in the Pascual Rivas Hall of the Former Teacher Training College of the UJA, the first data on soil respiration of the farms that are part of the Soil O-Live project were also released and the main aspects of the recently approved Soil Law were explained.The Vice-Rector for Research and Knowledge Transfer of the University of Jaén, Mª Victoria López Ramón, the coordinator of the project, Antonio José Manzaneda, professor of Ecology at the UJA, and the head of Sustainability at Deoleo, Juan Carrasco, took part in the event.
Professor Antonio José Manzaneda stressed that soil respiration is one of the various indicators proposed in the new Soil Monitoring Law, which is why it has been selected as the main matrix for the 1st International Soil O-Live: Soil Health and Quality Competition.
This new competition aims to demonstrate that maintaining healthy soil is not incompatible with producing the best olive oils in the world. “The physico-chemical analyses carried out by our Research Group have determined that 99% of the oils from the Soil O-Live project can be classified as Virgin or Extra Virgin. Therefore, the International Tasting panel will evaluate the organoleptic properties of the Soil O-Live oils and will determine which three oils are the best among the oils that have shown the best soil health,” explains Manzaneda.
María Victoria López Ramón, vice-rector of Research at the UJA, congratulated all the entities participating in the project for this initiative and stated that “the University of Jaén’s government team is fully convinced of the need to promote the internationalisation of research, supporting our researchers both in the participation and in the leadership of international projects and networks and promoting priority lines of research that are relevant to the socio-economic development of our territory”.
Juan Carrasco, Head of Sustainability at Deoleo, commented that “this new competition highlights the union of two fundamental pillars for Deoleo: quality and sustainability. Thanks to Soil O-Live, we will be able to reward the best quality oils, produced in healthy and sustainable soil, aspects that consumers are increasingly taking into account”.