Discover Argentina and Chile

When Christopher Columbus arrived in America in 1492, he also brought with him hundreds of varieties of species that mingled with the native flora and fauna. The first olive trees came from Seville to the West Indies (Caribbean) and later spread to the rest of the continent. Mr. Juan de Baena, acquired the plants in a place near Seville, and sent them in vats by the Casa de Contratación in 1520. A Royal Decree of August 1531 states: "all the masters who go to the Indies shall take with them on their ships the quantity of vine and olive plants they consider necessary, so that no one leaves without taking a certain quantity".

In 1560, there were already olive plantations in Mexico, and then they reached Peru, California, Argentina and Chile. The olive tree was among the first plants introduced from Spain to the Caribbean islands and then to the American continent.

From Mexico the olive tree reached California, while in Lima (Peru) it was brought directly by Don Antonio de Rivera from Seville, some cuttings were stolen and appeared in Chile where it spread rapidly. The introduction of the olive tree to Argentina is not well elucidated, one of the theories speaks of its arrival through a military expedition from Chile under the command of Captain Diego de Alvarado, being disseminated throughout the North of the territory, adapting perfectly in various places and especially in Arauco (La Rioja).

ARGENTINA

Currently, the area planted with olive trees is around 110,000 hectares and the main producing provinces are, in order of area planted, Catamarca, La Rioja, Mendoza, San Juan, Córdoba and Buenos Aires.

Varieties of olives planted:

Arbequina, Arauco, Farga, Empeltre, Frantoio, Manzanilla, Frantoio, Empeltre, Picual, Barnea, Farga, Coratina, Hojiblanca, Changlot Real, Nevadillo and Ascolano.

CHILE

Today Chile has more than 24,000 hectares planted with olive trees for the extraction of olive oil. Regarding the regional distribution of the planted area, the Metropolitan Region, Maule and the O'Higgins Region represent most of the planted area, also in the Coquimbo Region plantations have been made.

Varieties of olives planted:

Arbequina, Arbosana and Italian (Frantoio and Leccino) and Greek (Koroneiki) and Picual and Coratina varieties. Most of the varieties are suitable for super-intensive cultivation.