On Wednesday, 13 December, in the framework of the  Algerian Agriculture Support Programme (PASA), financed by the European Union (EU) in partnership with the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mr Thomas ECKERT, European Union Ambassador to Algeria, accompanied by high representatives of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, inaugurated the Takrietz Olive Analysis Laboratory at the station of the Technical Institute of Fruit and Vine Arboriculture (ITAFV) in the province of Béjaia.

This is a major step in the development of the Algerian olive producing sector, with the commissioning of the first complete laboratory specialising in olive growing available to all professionals in the sector.

This significant investment in both tangible and intangible assets, which has benefited from financial support from the EU and implementation by Expertise France, with the coordination of INRA (the National Agronomic Research Institute of Algeria), offers a new complete and efficient structure at the service of millers and the olive growing profession and the promotion of the olive economy in Algeria. At the heart of the production zone, in  the setting of the Takrietz demonstration farm, it aims to become a national reference  laboratory benefiting from accreditation through the National Accreditation Body (ALGERAC) and the approval of the International Olive Council (IOC).

“With this laboratory, we’ve completed our five-year commitment under the Soummam Valley section of the PASA Programme, financed by the EU to the tune of €6 million,”  declared H.E. Thomas Eckert, European Union Ambassador to Algeria.