THE OLIVE-OIL PROBLEM IN YUGOSLAVIA

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-00809A000700030146-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: R
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 6, 2011
• Sequence Number: 146
• Publication Date: November 21, 1951
• Content Type: REPORT

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/10/17: CIA-RDP80-00809A000700030146-5
COUNTRY
SUBJECT
HOW
PUBLISHED
WHERE
PUBLISHED
DATE
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LANGUAGE
CLASSIFICATION RESTRICTED 1116V
SECURITY INFORMATION
CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY REPOR~
INFORMATION FROM
FOREIGN DOCUMENTS OR RADIO BROADCASTS CD NO.
Yugoslavia DATE OF
Economic - Agriculture, olive-oil production INFORMATION 1950
Bimonthly periodical
Zagreb
Nov - Dec 1950
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I
DATE DIST. 9.l Nov 1951
NO. OF PAGES .3
SUPPLEMENT TO
REPORT NO.
THIS IS UNEVALUATED INFORMATION
One of the most important problems in the aree extending from Koper, Istria,
to Ulcinj, Mont: negro, is the problem of the olive-oil industry. This branch of
the economy, which should be a basic source of income for farmers and cooperatives
in this area, has been in a state of crisis for the past 70 years. Mistakes made
in this field during the past 30 years are still felt seriously.
The Yugoslav olive-oil industry requires planned development and large in-
vestments that may be amortized over a long period.
Yugoslavia had approximately 5 million olive trees in 1938. Assuming that
this nwaber had remained unchanged, and that the annexation of the Istria, Cres,
and Losinj areas increased this number by 500,000, Yugoslavia would now have
about 5.5 million olive trees.
However, a survey of olive orchards in Yugoslavia would show that, in the
past 30 years, hardly any Yugoslav farmers have planted a single olive tree. To
the contrary, every farmer has lost tens and tens of trees, so that the number
of olive trees is constantly decreasing.
The following should be done: increase the number of trees; use agricul-
tural methods which will insure a steady annual yield; increase the yield per
tree; modernize the present hydraulic presses; design new hydraulic presses;
improve the quality o' oil; class* oil by quality and thereby protect progres-
sive producers; and determine the percentage of acids available in olive oil for
public consumption, and thereby protect customers.
To carry out at least some of the above, regional supervisory stations for'
the systematic and plihned.improvement of the olive-oil industry should be estab-
lished. A large number of olive-tree nurseries, where farmers will always be
NSRB
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RESTM
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able to obtain a sufficient number of seedlings, selected for and suited to
Yugoslav coastal and island areas, should also be established. Farmers should
be urged to plant new olive orchards and to rejuvenate old ones, that is, to
prune old trees and fertilize the soil.'
To'insure sufficient quantities of fertilizer for olive orchards, it is
necessary..to increase the number of livestock in these areas. Farmers should
be given fodder in return for olive mash, the main raw material for the produc
tion of industrial oils. This would be an incentive to farmers to promote cul-
tivation of olive orchards. In add'.tion to this, olive growers should be pro-
vided with sufficient quantities of potassium phosphate salts.
Yugoslav olive orchards are completely exhausted of potassium oxide and
phosphoric anhydride. If these orchards were refertilized, the country would
get much more than the present yield of one kilogram or less oil per tree.
Yugoslavia would then have orchards regularly producing 2 kilograms of oil per tree.
Having achieved this yield, Yugoslavia could utilize arable land in the
interior, now used for the cultivation of various oil p'-ants, for more profitable
plants. The cultivation of various plants,for industrial oils, especially sun-
flowers, is ruining the soil. The only way to save such soil is to promote olive-
oil culture. Good-quality olive oil sells for 1.6 times as much as other indus-
trial oils.
Nothing has been done to exterminate tree and fruit parasites. Losses in-
flirted on olive orchards by such parasites amount to several million diners
annually. Trees infected with such parasites produce small quantities of oil.
The quality of this yield is extremely poor.
The extreme backwardness of the Yugoslav olive-oil industry is evidenced
not only by the failure to cultivate olive orchards properly, but also by the
failure to process olives according to modern technical discoveries. Producers
mix good olives with wor'.y ones. Olives collected from trees are mixed with
those collected from the ground and pressed together. Olives lie in heaps for
weeks before they are pressed. Oil from the first pressing is mixed with oil
from the second pressing. During the pressing process, hot water is poured
over the mash. All this contributes, of course, to the high percentage of free
acids in the finished product.
Olive oil produced in primitive presses, or even in so-called hydraulic
presses, is not free of, fruit particles, proteins, and various slimy substances.
All these foreign elements usually cause various fermentation processes. After
being stored for several weeks, good cooking oil becomes unfit for human con-
sumption and must be used for soap production.
It is urgently necessary, therefore, to modernize Yugoslav olive-oil fac-
tories and olive presses. The presses are still of the most primitive type,
although there are several hundred in use. The number of hydraulic presses
available is very small. Besides, they, too, have become obsolete. Forced
upon Yugoslavia by Italian industries, they were rejected for Italian domestic
consumption 10 years ago. Yet these obsolete presses were supplied by Italian
firms to Yugoslavia as recently as during World War II.
Analysis of olive mash in Yugoslavia, regardless of whether it hci been
pressed by a primitive handpress or a hydraulic press, shows a relatively large
percentage of oil still present. Italian olive mash never contains more than
8 percent oil, not to mention mash,which contains only 5 - 6 percent oil and
25 percent moisture.
J e
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Oil Factory
Moisture
15.47
Majkovi
17
14.18
Babinopolje
21
13.36
Sipan
26
12.24
Velaluka
17
14.50
Subsidiary of Velaluka
20
12.90
Another subsidiary of
Velaluka
24
13.90
Lastovo
28
14.40
Murter
24
9.00
The "Zaton," "Majkovi,"'and "Babinopolje" Factories still operate in the
most primitive way. The other factories have been mechanized with the Italian
hydraulic presses described above.
An analysis of oil content of dry mash shows that Italian mash contains
8 percent oil and 92 percent organic and inorganic elements.
Oil
Ino rg filem
20r110
r,
,
Zaton near Dubrovnik
20.90
79.10
Majkovi
17'.00.
83.00
Babinopolje
16.90
83.10
Sipan
16.90
83.40
Velaluka
17.4
82.60
Subsidiary of Velaluka
16.10
83.90
Another subsidiary of
Velaluka
18.30
81.70
Lastovo
20.00
80.00
Murter
11.80
88.20
Average
17.30
82.70
Oil production in other Yugoslav oil factories is even less efficient.
Yugoslav olive-oil factories extract only 75.70 percent,of the olive oil from
the olive; the remaining 24.30 percent is left in the mash.
Such a procedure might be justified if oil-extracting industries utilized
waste mash and processed it into industrial oil. However, only a part of this
mash is bought and processed into sulfur oil. The rest is left and used as
fodder (though it is a very poor type of fodder) or as fuel.
When Yugoslavia has modern olive-oil factories, cooking-oil production can
easily be increased. Thic would be at the expense of industrial-oil production,
but the world-market price of cooking oil is twice the price of sulfur oil.
Using such modern mills, Yugoslavia could purchase abroad all the industrial oil
needed at half the price of cooking oil.
Olive oil containing more-than 7 percent free acids should not be released
for human consumption, but should be refined or, if possible, mixed with other
vegetable oils. This would contribute to es~ablishing a standard cooking oil.
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