Olives have been an important agricultural product in Spain for a long time. In "The Olive Industry of Spain," published in the April 1936 edition of the journal Economic Geography, the author, William E. Bull, outlines the history of olive oil production in Spain up to that point. The Romans encouraged the planting of olive orchards after their occupation of the Iberian Peninsula in 206 B.C. Although the olive industry decreased in production during the reign of the Visigoths, it became important again under Arab rule in the 8th century with new irrigation technology increasing the size of orchards. The promotion of the olive industry in the 19th century was advanced in 1884 when schools of olive cultivation were created. In 1898 Spain lost two of its colonies, Cuba and the Phillipines, resulting in a currency devalutation. At this time the government began to focus more attention on domestic issues and the Spanish olive oil industry began to gain importance on the world market. The following map shows that regions along the Mediterranean produced 99% of the world's olive in 1936, with particularly large areas of Spain devoted to olive production: Increased government intervention in the first decade of the 20th century in the form of 25 new laws regulating all aspects of olive oil production along with the appearance of finer grades of oil resulted in a huge increase in exports. By 1914, Spain had become one of the world’s greatest exporters of olive oil in the world. In 1924 the first "Oil Conference" was held in Madrid, resulting in the formation of the Federation of Olive Oil Exporters in Spain, which aimed to unify the nation's olive exports and increase business with foreign markets. In 1925 the National Association of Olive Growers was created in order "to protect the olive industry in all its technical, economic, and commercial aspects," [10]. The following map depicts olive production specifically…