Education
The history of Olive Oil in Portugal is very old. In the Visigothic Code of the year 560 AD, there was already a fine for those who plucked other people’s olive trees (the Visigoth people occupied the Iberian peninsula between the 5th and 8th centuries). However, it was the Arabs who intensified the cultivation of olive trees during their occupation in the 8th century. The word Azeite (olive oil in Portuguese) has an Arab origin (the word came from az-zait, which means olive juice). In the 13th century, Portuguese olive oil was already exported to other countries. The product was so important in the diet habits of the Portuguese people that in 1555, King D. João III established that the product was not subject to taxation, along with bread and wine.