Following its election in November 2022, the new Board of the Advisory Committee of the International Olive Council (IOC) met twice by video conference on 14 February and 16 May 2023 to discuss various issues and prepare for the 60th meeting of the IOC Advisory Committee which is to be held on 25 May in Nicosia, Cyprus, at the invitation and with the active collaboration of the Cypriot Ministry of Agriculture.
As a reminder, the new board is chaired by Abdessalem Loued and vice-chaired by Gennaro Sicolo (olive oil section) and M’Hamed Belasla (table olives), with the participation of Kemiche Boudjema and Primitivo Fernández (Deputies I and II of the olive oil section, respectively), and Ali Ben Hadj M’Barek and Saeef Kashavaraz (Deputies I and II of the table olives section, respectively).
The Advisory Committee for Olive Oil and Table Olives is a key interlocutor for the Council of Members and the Executive Secretariat. Its representatives come from all the families that make up the sector in IOC Member countries – producers, processors, traders and consumers. It was created with the aim to gather the opinions of the representatives of the economic actors in the olive sector who, thanks to their knowledge of the field, are well placed to help the Executive Secretariat identify effective solutions to the sector’s problems.
This Committee plays an increasingly important role as a forum for meetings of all stakeholders in the olive sector.
During their preparatory meetings, the Committee board members discussed various issues of interest to the sector and, in particular, the participation of the Committee in international olive oil fairs. The Chairman of the Advisory Committee thanked his colleagues for their active participation and indicated that this was a new beginning in the relations between the members of the Advisory Committee and the IOC.