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Publication of an application for registration pursuant to Article 6(2) of Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 on the protection of geographical indications and designations of origin

(2005/C 177/12)

This publication confers the right to object to the application pursuant to Articles 7 and 12d of the abovementioned Regulation. Any objection to this application must be submitted via the competent authority in a Member State, in a WTO member country or in a third country recognized in accordance with Article 12(3) within a time limit of six months from the date of this publication. The arguments for publication are set out below, in particular under 4.6, and are considered to justify the application within the meaning of Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92.

SUMMARY

COUNCIL REGULATION (EEC) No 2081/92

‘ANTEQUERA’

No CE: ES/00327/26.11.2003

PDO (X) PGI ( )

This note is a summary produced for information. For full details, interested parties and in particular the producers of the products covered by the PDO and the PGI in question are invited to consult the full version of the specifications at national services and associations or at the competent services of the European Commission (1).

1.   Responsible department in the Member State:

2.   Group:

3.   Type of product:

Extra virgin olive oil — Class 1.5 — Oils and fats.

4.   Specification:

(Summary of requirements under Article 4(2))

4.1   Name: ‘Antequera’

4.2   Description: Extra virgin olive oil, obtained from olives (Olea europea, L.) of the varieties Hojiblanca, Picual or Marteño, Arbequina, Lechín de Sevilla or Zorzaleño, Gordal de Archidona, Picudo, Verdial de Vélez-Málaga and Verdial de Huévar. Hojiblanca is the main variety.

These are all moderately stable oils thanks to their high concentrations of tocopherols, a typical property of Hojiblanca oils. This makes Antequera oils rich in vitamin E.

They have an ideal fatty acid content for a balanced diet. This is due as much to the Hojiblanca variety as to the geographical area. It contains high levels of oleic acid, average levels of linoleic acid and a high level of unsaturated fats in relation to saturated fats.

The fraction of unsaponifiable matter of Antequera oils is notable for high levels of methyl sterols, more than 30 mg per 100 g of oil.

As regards their organoleptic properties, the oils are light in the mouth. They present a range of fruity aromas of green olives, other ripe fruits, almonds, banana and fresh grass. The intensities of the fruit aromas vary from medium to high. The degree of bitterness and spiciness also varies from light to medium, perfectly complementing the slightly sweet tastes.

The colour varies from golden yellow to greenish-yellow, depending on when and where in the area the olives were harvested.

The oils covered by the PDO must be extra virgin and of one of the following types, based on their organoleptic and physical/chemical properties:

‘Intense taste’ — olive oil presenting the most intense organoleptic properties.

‘Smooth taste’ — olive oil presenting organoleptic properties of average intensity.

Both types have the following maximum permitted values:

4.3   Geographical area: The oils are produced in the natural area formed by the Antequera Depression, one of the westernmost Andalusian depressions. In the north it borders the provinces of Córdoba and Sevilla, in the east the provinces of Sevilla and Cadiz and in the west that of Granada. Its southern limit is bounded by parts of the Penibética mountain range, which separate it from the Montes de Málaga, Hoyas in Valle del Guadalhorce and Serranía de Ronda, all districts of the province of Málaga.

This area comprises all the land in the following municipalities of the province of Málaga: Alameda, Almargen, Antequera, Archidona, Campillos, Cañete La Real, Cuevas Bajas, Cuevas de San Marcos, Fuente de Piedra, Humilladero, Mollina, Sierra de Yeguas, Teba, Villanueva de Algaidas, Villanueva del Rosario, Villanueva del Trabuco and Villanueva de Tapia, and the municipality of Palenciana in the province of Córdoba.

The product is processed and bottled in the same area.

4.4   Proof of origin: The olives come from authorised varieties grown on plantations registered for the Designation of Origin. The oil is obtained from mills in the production area which are also registered for the PDO. It is stored in registered mills and bottling plants which have suitable facilities for keeping it as fresh as possible. The Regulatory Board will lay down a monitoring plan to cover the oils up to and including the time they receive their final certification. A numbered label issued by the Regulatory Board will guarantee that the oils covered by the PDO are in compliance with the specifications.

4.5   Method of production: The trees are planted in rows, in blocks usually measuring between 8 m × 8 m and 12 m × 12 m, and the number of scions per tree is generally 3, although this varies between 1 and 4. Most of the land on the plantations is not irrigated. The cultivation practices used are traditional local methods, which tend to be environmentally friendly. Only healthy, ripe fruit is harvested, being picked directly from the tree using the traditional methods of hand-pole beating and vibrator pickers, or a mixture of beating and vibration. The olives are always transported to the mill in bulk, in trailers or rigid containers. They are milled in registered mills no later than 48 hours after being harvested. The milling process is continuous, in inert-material hammer mills authorised in the food-processing industry. The temperature at which the pomace obtained is milled is kept below 36 °C at all times. The only adjuvant authorised is certified food-processing talc, no more than 2,5 %. The phases are generally separated by centrifugation. Oils obtained from the second centrifugation (oils from the second pressing) do not qualify for certification under the ‘Antequera’ PDO. The temperature of the water added to the decanters (horizontal centrifuges) or to the vertical centrifuges must not exceed 35 °C. The process of decanting the oils takes not less than 6 hours (when centrifuging) or 36 hours (when decanting by gravity). The extra virgin olive oil is stored in warehouses, in stainless steel tanks, presses or lined steel tanks suitable for storing foodstuffs. The storage tanks must be completely sealed, be able to be cleaned properly, and be equipped with a system enabling periodic drainage and the taking of samples. The storage area must be climate-controlled to a temperature that ensures the oil does not spoil. Bulk PDO oils may not be moved out of the production area, to guarantee their traceability and origin. The oils are processed and bottled (in registered bottling plants) in the production area.

The requirement to bottle the oil at source is designed strictly to provide a better guarantee of the product's quality and authenticity and, therefore, the standing of the PDO — for which the PDO producers collectively take full responsibility. The controls organised by these producers in the production area are both systematic and meticulous, performed by professionals who have specialised knowledge of the product's characteristics.

The checks needed to guarantee the quality of the product cannot easily be set up outside the production area. Registered bottling companies must ensure that PDO olive oil is bottled separately from other products in their plants, and must have in place quality assurance systems, certified under standard ISO-9001:2000, which cover the oil from its arrival at the plant in bulk to the dispatch of the bottled product, as well as a series of ex post checks.

The containers that hold the finished product are foodstuffs containers made of glass, lined metal or ceramic.

4.6   Link: The natural production area for Antequera oils is the extreme west of the Andalusian depressions. This area has particular geomorphological and climatic characteristics. It covers an area of depressions with smooth topography at an altitude of 400-600 m, surrounded by a series of mountain ranges to the north (the Sierras Subbéticas) and south (the Sistema Penibético) which give the area a microclimate and soil conditions suitable for olive cultivation.

The olives are grown between 450 and 600 metres above sea level, on medium-depth very limy soil (20-70 % carbonate of lime). Hojiblanca is very well adapted to this type of limy soil, since olive trees require large amounts of calcium from the soil. What is more, because the surrounding area drains into the Antequera Depression, various different levels of river terrace have developed, all bearing large quantities of tertiary deposits, including Middle Pliocene red clay, which provide the olive trees with plentiful amounts of potassium and have high levels of moisture retention, promoting vegetation in the olive trees, which is useful given that more than 90 % of the plantation land is not irrigated.

The Antequera area has a temperate to warm Mediterranean climate, with some continental characteristics due to its location in the Andalusian depression. This situation produces great contrasts in temperature between summer and winter, and between night and day. The low temperatures in winter delay the olives' ripening period, especially for Hojiblanca, altering the acid profile of the oils produced to give higher levels of oleic acid and less fatty saturated and unsaturated acids.

Hojiblanca, the main variety (accounting for over 90 % of the olives grown in the area), is perfectly adapted to these environmental conditions. This area is the centre of Hojiblanca olive cultivation in Andalusia.

The production of virgin olive oil in the Antequera area dates back to Roman times, between the 1st and 3rd centuries AD, via a rural system formed by almost fifty villae olearias scattered across the whole area. The archaeological remains of these villae olearias were studied by Mr Romero of the Antequera local authority in 1998 and led to the recovery of Roman mills with all the parts described in the works of the famous agronomists of the classical period, Pliny and Columella. Related to these Roman mills, a number of petrified olive stones were discovered, which were identified as being of the Hojiblanca variety by the University of Cordoba's Technical School of Agricultural Engineering and Mountain Science (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Agrónomos y Montes), evidence that the main variety under this PDO has been cultivated locally for almost 2 000 years. This major discovery shows that the Hojiblanca variety may have originated in the Antequera area.

Antequera's Historical Archive contains references from the 16th century to ‘Municipal ordinances on oil mills and millers’, approved by the Antequera Town Council in 1537 and confirmed by King Charles I of Spain and V of Germany some years later. Similar Ordinances from 1598 were found in another municipality in the area, Archidona. In 1679 there were 2 400 ha of olive groves and 61 oil mills in the municipality of Antequera, according to the land register of Father Francisco Cabrera of the Order of Saint Augustine.

The golden age of olive growing in Antequera was around the end of the 19th century and the first third of the 20th, during which time the land area under olives boomed from 26 755 ha in 1888 to 44 007 ha in 1922, according to the Spanish Directorate-General for Agriculture. This major expansion fuelled the development of a local milling machinery industry (presses, mills, hydraulic pumps, etc.), mainly due to the presence in Antequera in the 1870s of the Valencian engineer Beltrán de Lis. The foundries set up by his successors (Luna, Alcaide, Herrera and Rodas), which specialised in making this type of machinery, supplied southern Spain with large numbers of olive mills and olive oil factories in the early years of the 20th century. All such milling equipment produced in the area was marked not just with the manufacturer's stamp but also with the designation ‘Antequera’.

4.7   Inspection body: 

This body meets the requirements of Standard EN-45.011.

4.8   Labelling: All Antequera PDO products must be labelled: ‘Denominación de Origen “ANTEQUERA”’. The labels must be authorised by the Regulatory Council. They must be numbered and issued by the Regulatory Council.

4.9   National requirements: Law 25/1970 of 2 December 1970 laying down rules on vineyards, wine and spirit drinks; Decree 835/1972 of 23 March 1972 laying down detailed rules for the application of Law 25/1970; Order of 25 January 1994 specifying the correlation between Spanish legislation and Regulation (EEC) No 2081/92 on designations of origin and geographical indications for food products; Royal Decree 1643/1999 of 22 October 1999 laying down the procedure for processing applications for registration in the Community Register of Protected Designations of Origin and Protected Geographical Indications.

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(1)  European Commission, Directorate-General for Agriculture and Rural Development, Agricultural Products Quality Policy Unit, B-1049 Brussels.

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