IOC and CIHEAM to meet in Madrid on 19 March

Madrid – The agreement between the International Olive Council (IOC) and the International Center for Advanced Mediterranean Agronomic Studies (CIHEAM) is starting to take shape. A meeting has been scheduled to take place in Madrid on 19 March 2018, between the IOC, the General Secretariat of CIHEAM in Paris, and the Directors of the four Mediterranean Agronomic Institutes of Bari (Italy), Saragossa (Spain), Montpellier (France) and Chania, on the island of Crete (Greece). This meeting aims to strengthen collaboration between the two institutions and establish, according to the specificities of each institution, information dissemination activities relating to the platform of the new IOC Observatory. Last year, during the proceedings of the 105th session of the IOC at the headquarters of the FAO in Rome, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed between the two organisations with the principle objective of combating the Xylella fastidiosa disease. The two delegations will be respectively led by Abdellatif Ghedira, Executive Director of the IOC, and Placido Plaza, interim Secretary General of the CIHEAM.