The Olive Pomace Oil Interprofessional Organization (ORIVA) Celebrates 10 Years Promoting Sustainability
The Olive Pomace Oil Interprofessional Organization (ORIVA) is celebrating its tenth anniversary after a decade dedicated to promoting research, outreach, and sustainability around Olive Pomace Oil—a healthy product with its roots in the olive grove. This work has helped to strengthen and increase the visibility of the pomace oil sector and lays the foundation for further expanding its presence and recognition in the Spanish market.
The production of Olive Pomace Oil represents a model of sustainability based on the full use of wet fatty pomace (WFP), from which valuable applications are derived for energy (biomass), agriculture (compost and fertilizers), health (extracts rich in phenolic compounds such as hydroxytyrosol), and food (Olive Pomace Oil). ORIVA is also working on the development of a specific environmental certification for Olive Pomace Oil intended for commercialization, aiming to offer consumers a final product with verifiable sustainability criteria and greater transparency.
“ORIVA celebrates ten years of progress with gratitude to those who have supported its growth—and to the olive grove, a driver of sustainability and prosperity in our regions. We are ready to continue moving forward, deepening the value and promotion of Olive Pomace Oil so it can reach more households, both within and beyond our borders,” said ORIVA President José Luis Maestro Sánchez-Cano.
Olive Pomace Oil is the result of the full utilization of the olive and is obtained through a three-phase process: extraction, refining, and blending.
It begins with the raw material—wet fatty pomace or “alpeorujo”—which consists of water, skin, pit, and the residual oil left after the olives are milled. Through a sustainable extraction process, the remaining oil is recovered, then refined, and finally blended with a proportion of extra virgin olive oil or virgin olive oil.
This process gives Olive Pomace Oil many of its distinctive qualities: an oil with excellent nutritional value and unbeatable performance.
Environmental value of Olive Pomace Oil
Olive Pomace Oil is much more than a unique food product. The way it is produced generates zero waste, creating a circular economy and making the Olive Pomace industry environmentally friendly. Olive oil uses only 20% of the olive, the remaining 80% is pomace paste.
This paste is used in the olive pomace industry, where it is transformed into a range of valuable products, making the olive production chain fully sustainable.”
100% recovery of the oliveDuring the proper processing of the alpeorujo, most of it, 60%, evaporates in the form of water. The rest is put to valuable food, energy, environmental and sanitary applications.
- Food applications: around 2% is the crude oil that will be used to make Olive Pomace Oil.
- Energy applications: approximately 38% of the alpeorujo is converted into biomass, mainly in the form of orujillo and olive stones, used as an energy source both for internal consumption and for commercialisation. The olive pomace oil industry has implemented the use of renewable energies, like the generation of biomass from olive groves, and cogeneration with natural gas.
- Environmental applications: chemical fertilisers and compost for the fertilisation of soils and crops.
- Health applications: the industry also extracts other high value-added compounds with nutritional and cosmetic applications such as phenols or hydroxytyrosol, which are utilized by the pharmaceutical industry.
