2023-09-19 17:08:14
The method consists of collecting with nets the ripe fruits which fall naturally.
Mountaineering, watchmaking mechanics, the cultivation of baguettes and now the “old-fashioned” harvest of olives in Corsica. Each year, dozens of know-how in France are registered in the national inventory of intangible cultural heritage (PCI).
This Tuesday, the Ministry of Culture announced that it had included in the PCI the method of natural olive picking in Corsica. It consists of collecting, with nets, the ripe fruits that fall to the ground.
“The inclusion of this social and cultural practice aims to make it known, recognized and above all safeguard it, that is to say, transmit it to future generations within the framework of sustainable development,” explained Tuesday to the AFP Thomas Mouzard, project manager at the Ministry of Culture for the PCI.
Unique know-how
“It’s the recognition of know-how that is being lost: we are almost the last olive ‘fishermen’,” Sandrine Marfisi, former president of the Interprofessional Union of Corsican Olive Growers (Sidoc) told AFP on Tuesday. ) and one of the writers of the Corsican application.
“In France, only Corsica has an orchard of centuries-old olive trees spared from frost to continue the old-fashioned harvest, and among the olive-producing countries, only Greece still practices it,” she said. added.
Maintaining this know-how, which is practiced on very old olive trees, “means supporting the villages of the interior and a community of a thousand people spread across the four corners of the island” but also “maintaining a unique plant heritage of 10,000 hectares by saving it from fire and disease,” she argued.
More than 500 practices listed in the PCI
In Corsica, “of the 2100 hectares of olive trees exploited”, “1300 hectares of old orchards spread across the island are taken over, maintained, renovated” by “around a hundred professional olive growers and around a thousand people in family olive growing “, we can read in the sheet posted on the website of the Ministry of Culture to announce this registration.
France has 50,000 hectares of olive trees. Two thirds of world olive oil production comes from the European Union where Spain is, by far, the largest producer with two thirds of European production.
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Today, more than 500 practices are listed in the PCI. This inclusion in the PCI of France is one of the conditions for competing for registration as UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage, which currently includes 18 French traditions including the gastronomic meal, the companionship or the fest-noz in Brittany.
In Corsica, only the pagjella, a tradition of Corsican songs performed by men, has been inscribed since 2009 on Unesco’s intangible cultural heritage
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