Italian Food Mafia 27 January 2015 Source: Forbes “Organised criminal activity in Italy’s farming sector flourished last year because of bad weather, which damaged crop production and allowed criminal groups to sell more counterfeit products,” the Financial Times reported. Italy’s National Agricultural Association found that illegal agricultural businesses increased...
Category: News
Source, Daily Mail, UK. A wet summer in combination with a fruit fly blight, has led to a widespread failure of the annual harvest in large parts of Italy, with some producers not harvesting at all this year according to the Confederation of Agricultural producers in Italy (CIA). Production fell...
The 2013-14 Italian harvest produced 480,000 metric tons of olive oil, down 8% from last year. The average annual Italian olive oil production, its Imports, Exports and Consumption are listed below:
(August 2014, Source: www.olivenews.gr)
2014-15 HARVEST: After its worst harvest in decades, Greece will show a bountiful harvest in the coming season exceeding its yearly average tonnage and anticipating excellent extra virgin organoleptics. Spain will have an estimated 20% drop in its olive oil output in 2014-15, after a record breaking harvest last season. The countries outside the Mediterranean basin (Americas and Oceania) still only account for 3% of the global olive oil harvest.
3 July 2014, Source: various news reports
INFUSED OLIVE OILS CANNOT BE CALLED “EXTRA VIRGIN”: The International Olive Oil Council (IOC) “washed its hands” over the issue of regulating infused olive oils. It’s Executive Director, Jean Louis Barjol agreed with the infused oil lobby that the IOC could not regulate the aromatic olive oils as they cannot be judged on the basis of their organoleptic characteristics. Barjol’s stance satisfied the North American infused oil industry who wanted to operate outside the IOC’s regulatory environment. But, in effect, it represents a victory for the purists, as the aromatic olive oil industry cannot claim “extra virginity” even if they used EVOO in the initial mix. Actually, the IOC does not even regard infused oils as Olive Oils.
