Olive

Olive

　　Olive, also known as olea europaea, is an evergreen tree belonging to the Oleaceae family and the Olea genus. Cultivated varieties are of high edible value and rich in premium edible vegetable oil—olive oil. It is a renowned subtropical fruit tree and an important economic crop. By the mid-1970s, the world’s olive tree population had reached 800 million, covering over 7 million hectares, with one-third being pure stands. In 1974, the global olive harvest was 7.8 million tons, of which 560,000 tons were used for processed fruit products and 7.24 million tons were pressed for oil, yielding 1.47 million tons of olive oil, ranking it as the sixth most produced edible vegetable oil in the world.

　　China began cultivating olives relatively late. By the end of the 1970s, there were 12 million olive trees in the country. Sichuan alone had around 5 million, with over 99% being young trees. Currently, only a small number of trees have reached fruit-bearing age, and the annual olive yield has not yet reached 200 tons.

　　The olive is a world-renowned woody oil and fruit tree species. Olive oil is a natural edible vegetable oil cold-pressed directly from fresh olives. It is highly nutritious, possesses strong antioxidant properties, and has a wide range of uses. It is recognized worldwide as the “queen of vegetable oils” and the “liquid gold.”