The "Overseas Technical Review Visit", which is the last module of the current situation analysis study within the scope of the "Olive and Olive Oil Sector National Clustering Strategies Development Project" carried out in cooperation with the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock and TÜSSİDE, was held in Spain on 18-20 February 2015. The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock project team, TÜSSİDE project team and members of the technical committee consisting of sector and cluster experts attended the visit, which aimed to analyze the olive and olive oil sector in Spain from a clustering perspective.
Within the scope of the study, cooperatives, unions, table olive processing facilities, olive pressing, storage and packaging facilities that can serve as examples for our country were visited in Jaen, Cordoba and Sevilla, the provinces where olive and olive oil production is most intense in Spain, and meetings were held with producers, operators and administrators. interviews were held and production lines were visited. Academicians who are experts in the olive and olive oil sector at the University of Cordoba provided information about the current situation of the sector in Spain and the R&D projects carried out to strengthen the sector, and an exemplary olive garden established within the scope of their work was visited. Within the scope of the visit, the World Olive Gene Bank was also examined on-site and information was obtained about its practices and projects.
During the visit, within the scope of the current situation analysis of the project, it was analyzed what methods and tools Spain used to overcome the sector problems identified in the visits, in-depth interviews and workshops held in Turkey, and the project teams and Evaluations were made by technical committee members. The information obtained during the visit was shared with the sector representatives who came together at the "Strategy Development Workshop and Logical Framework Meeting", which was the next phase of the project and was held on 6-7 March 2015, and evaluations were made on how the project could contribute to the strategic modeling phase.
