Sinfo’s Olive Tree chosen as Best Monumental Olive Tree of the Mediterranean by RECOMED (12/2019)

The olive tree from Traiguera (Castelló) was acknowledged in the first edition of the contest, in which 12 more candidacies of legendary specimens were presented from Spain, Italy, Tunisia, Lebanon, Montenegro and Turkey. Other countries belonging to Recomed are Greece, Croatia, Slovenia and Morocco.

Recomed summoned in March 2019 the "I Mediterranean Contest to the Best Ancient Olive Tree", an international competition to pick the Best Monumental Olive Tree of the Mediterranean coast. As stated in the rules, only olive tree from countries that are part of Recomed could participate, a network of 10 countries and the more prominent producers of olive oil.

12 specimens from 6 different countries were competing in the contest, with high level candidacies, because there were centenary and millenary olive trees that can be considered alive legends of its countries.

The jury was formed of acknowledged experts in agronomy like Dr. Agnelly from Italy, Dr. Lazovic from Montenegro, Dr. Belaj from Spain, Dr. Shigm from Tunisia and Dr. Engin from Turkey. All of them evaluated the different candidacies and voted the best specimens with 3, 2 and 1 points, having banned voting for an olive tree from their own country.

The Spanish Olivo de Sinfo, from Traiguera (Sénia Territory), was the winner after getting the highest amount of votes, followed by Bchaaleh Millenial Olive Tree from Lebanon and The thousand-year-old olive tree of Echraf from Tunisia, both of them having a tie in the second position.

The jury evaluated thoroughly the specimen's longevity, certified by the perimeter of the trunk that is higher than 10 meters, as its spectacular image emerging from the ground, a solid trunk and a majestic aerial part, healthy and capable of producing good harvests, century after century.

It's a specimen of the Farga variety, grafted upon Acebuche that lies on the side of the ancient roman Via Augusta and it's surrounded by other monumental specimen. Glancing its astonishing looks we can tell that it's one of the most ancient olive trees in the Iberian Peninsula, and in consequence of the Mediterranean Coast.

Even if monumental olive tree dating can be a quite complicated task regarding the antiquity, according to Dr. Antonio Prieto from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid , that did the dating of other olive trees from the Sénia Territory in 1,707, 1,494 and 1,452, "it's not possible to do the same with Olivo de Sinfo, because a very important part of the trunk is missing, but having in mind the result of the other ones, this specimen can have more than 2,000 years of life". It’s the olive tree with the broader trunk in all of Sénia's Territory.

Regarding the name, Olivo de Sinfo, according to the owner it's the name of his maternal grandmother, who was named Sinforosa, and since then both his father, him and now the olive have been called that name, as a way to remember her.

The candidacy was made as a joining of forces between José Manuel Alemany, owner of the olive tree, the Mancomunidad Taula del Sénia and Traiguera’s Townhall. The Olivo de Sinfo won also the AEMO prize for the Best Monumental Olive Tree of Spain in 2018.

The verdict of the contest was publicly disclosed in the Recomed's Annual Assembly taking place in the Italian city of Siena on 30th November of 2019.