Over 200 agents attended the II Fundación Juan Ramón Guillén Awards

Aiming to improve and develop olive sector and its value proposition, the Fundación Juan Ramón Guillén Awards look for innovative initiatives that will boost the sector. In addition, the awards contribute to give visibility to professionals related to the topic in Spain and Andalucía.

The event sponsored by EIT Food, Caja Rural de Jaén and Coosur was hosted in Hacienda Guzmán, Sevilla, gathering about 200 agents from public institutions, companies, cooperatives, associations from the olive sector, financial entities, and agrifood suppliers, such as universities or foundations.

In the 10th anniversary of the foundation, Alvaro Guillén, owner of Fundacion Juan Ramón Guillén and adviser in Acesur, announced that the awards were a total success due to a notorious economical remuneration and the creation of a new European category. Guillén insisted on the importance of the olive sector in Spain and Andalucía as “the 80% of olive oil is Spanish and of Andalusian origin” and encourage professionals to keep on working and innovating in the sector.

This year’s award obtained high-quality attendance from all over Spain and various European countries who were competing for prizes valued in 12.000 euros. After exhaustively evaluating the propositions, these were the winners:

• Young Farmer Award: Antonio Manuel Conde López was awarded for arguing and defending the use of vegetable covers to prevent olive land from erosion and its disadvantages. The award was given by Caja Rural de Jaén with 4000 euros.
• Olive Rural Innovation Award: “Apadrina un olivo”, an initiative aiming to recuperate 100.000 olive trees in Teruel, was awarded by Coosur with 4000 euros.
• Professional Career Special Award: Manuel Pajarón, an agronomist engineer and owner of Fundación Savia, won the award for his labor in defending and developing the olive sector.
• New Business Ideas Transforming the Olive Value Chain Award: EIT Food delivered the award valued in 4000 euros to OPTISOLIO PC, which present an innovative method to tract and identify Fruit Flies. The award winner received a 2000 euros prize and a mentoring clinic, valued in 2000 euros, to enhance their opportunities of growing.