World's largest olive oil exhibition kicks off in Madrid

The World Olive Oil Exhibition (WOOE), the largest exhibition in the world dedicated solely to the olive oil industry, opened in the Spanish capital of Madrid on Wednesday.

The eighth edition of the event is held over two days at the IFEMA Exhibition Center in Madrid with around 3,000 industry professionals from over 30 countries and regions, including United Arab Emirates, Japan, Britain, the United States, India, South Africa, Germany, Libya, Iran and China, all expected to attend.

Vicente Sanchez-Migallon, CEO of the exhibition, told Xinhua that the event has grown consistently since it first opened and, "there is no event as important as this in presenting new products."

According to the official press dossier, 187 different companies, ranging from producers, bottlers and agricultural cooperatives, to companies offering technological and logistical services, as well as laboratories are exhibiting in Madrid with over 1,000 different trademarks also on show.

Sanchez-Migallon was satisfied at the growth the WOOE has experienced and said the organizers had even been slightly worried that the number of expected attendees was too large for the hall where the event was being held.

"The olive oil market was a bit complicated, because most of them were producers and not used to the world of commerce, but we are happy that we are succeeding" in changing that, he explained.