`Deoleo Touts Sustainability in U.S. Campaign - Olive Oil Times
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Deoleo Touts Sustainability in U.S. Campaign

By Bonface Landi
Jun. 1, 2023 15:10 UTC

Deoleo, the world’s largest olive oil pro­ducer and dis­trib­u­tor, has launched part of a new sus­tain­abil­ity strat­egy.

The Spanish com­pany said it would intro­duce its new ​“sus­tain­ably sourced” Bertolli brand and ​“orig­i­nal sus­tain­able” Carapelli brand in super­mar­kets across the United States this sum­mer.

According to Deoleo, the olive oil com­pris­ing these brands results from a sus­tain­abil­ity strat­egy announced in 2019.

See Also:Future Lies in Specialized, Sustainable Production, Deoleo CEO Says

The com­pany said the process begins with olives and oil sourced from 680,000 hectares and 70 mills in Italy, Spain, Tunisia and Argentina fol­low­ing the company’s sus­tain­abil­ity pro­to­col.

Once trans­formed, the olive oil is stored in newly-designed bot­tles made from recy­cled plas­tic that Deoleo said also use 10 per­cent less mate­r­ial.

The com­pany added that it con­tin­ues to work on low­er­ing the car­bon foot­print of its pro­duc­tion, bot­tling and dis­tri­b­u­tion facil­i­ties by invest­ing in energy-effi­cient equip­ment and installing renew­able energy infra­struc­ture.

“As the world’s largest olive oil com­pany, we have a respon­si­bil­ity to our her­itage, our indus­try, and most impor­tantly, our con­sumers to deliver sus­tain­abil­ity,” Deoleo North America chief exec­u­tive Thierry Moyroud said.

“We will con­tinue to drive toward this goal through a holis­tic approach that addresses every step of the process,” he added. ​“The sus­tain­abil­ity con­ver­sa­tion is mul­ti­fac­eted, and while these new SKUs [brands] are sig­nif­i­cant, they rep­re­sent a small part of our global vision.”

Deoleo’s deci­sion to invest in sus­tain­abil­ity and aggres­sively mar­ket the strat­egy fol­lows a trend of increas­ing con­sumer demand for sus­tain­able goods.

A 2021 study by pric­ing con­sul­tancy Simon-Kutcher & Partners found that more than one-third of global con­sumers are will­ing to pay more for sus­tain­ably pro­duced prod­ucts.

The study sur­veyed over 10,000 peo­ple in 17 coun­tries and found that 60 per­cent of con­sumers listed sus­tain­abil­ity as an impor­tant pur­chase cri­te­rion. In the U.S., this fig­ure rose ever so slightly to 61 per­cent.

Along with its sus­tain­abil­ity efforts, Deoleo also announced plans to increase trace­abil­ity by intro­duc­ing a blockchain-backed QR code on some of its bot­tles. By scan­ning the code with a smart­phone, con­sumers can trace the entire pro­duc­tion chain for its Carapelli 100% Italian brand.

QR code-enabled smart labels are also an emerg­ing trend in the indus­try, with a range of large pro­duc­ers and dis­trib­u­tors adopt­ing the tech­nol­ogy in recent years.

Last year, California Olive Ranch, the largest olive oil pro­ducer in the U.S., intro­duced its own QR code label to boost trans­parency around its imported and made-in-California brands.

CHO America, the U.S.-based branch of the large Tunisian olive oil pro­ducer, announced an effort to use blockchain tech­nol­ogy to ensure trace­abil­ity in 2021.

Both CHO America and Deolo have part­nered with IBM to intro­duce the tech­nol­ogy. IBM Spain has been work­ing to intro­duce the tech­nol­ogy that under­pins cryp­tocur­ren­cies and other dig­i­tal assets in the olive oil indus­try since 2019.

“When [the con­sumers] scan the bot­tle, it will show them the region where the olives were har­vested, when they were crushed, when the oil was fil­tered, when it was pack­aged and when it was ana­lyzed for ship­ment,” CHO America chief exec­u­tive Wajih Rekik said at the time.

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