As shipments of olive oil from the 2018-18 harvest in progress in the Mediterranean and California reach distributors, food service facilities and the store shelves, consumers must look into where their oil is coming from. A down cycle in most producing regions but Spain, adverse climatic conditions in Italy and Greece, plus fires in California have reduced quantity and quality, making the prized extra virgin olive oil from these regions hard to find. Frost, plus the fruit fly which ravaged Italy’s crop and Greece’s early harvest lowered output to below 200,000 tons for each of those two countries. With Italian domestic consumption at 600,000 tons, we now know that the Italians exports consist of an assortment of foreign blends sourced mostly in Northern Africa, Spain and Turkey but labeled, “bottled in Italy – product of EU”. Italian oil importer/distributor, Bono USA, declared that their,   “Organic Extra Virgin Olive Oil, focuses on certified product — verified by a third party to be authentic—which adhere to European standards of taste and quality”. And leading producer, California Olive Ranch, introduced a new packaging claim that its oils are “Crafted in California,” even though the olives have been grown by partner-producers in Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Portugal, who then supply the US based company with certified extra virgin olive oils. Greece, the globe’s 2^nd largest producer over the past 4 years, will struggle to meet  its domestic demand and burgeoning tourist trade in 2019.

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