PDO and PGI Tourism Boosts Olive Oil Industry in Italy

Summary

A report high­lights a trend in Italy where trav­el­ers are seek­ing sus­tain­able expe­ri­ences focused on olive oil, local food tra­di­tions, and arti­san cul­ture, with 70% of tourism activ­i­ties related to PDO and PGI prod­ucts start­ing in the last five years. Producers are uti­liz­ing PDO and PGI cer­ti­fi­ca­tions to enhance com­mu­ni­ca­tion with con­sumers through oleo­tourism, offer­ing insights into the pro­duc­tion process and regional iden­tity, ulti­mately increas­ing the value and recog­ni­tion of olive oil.

Deviating from the most pop­u­lar tourist des­ti­na­tions, a grow­ing num­ber of trav­el­ers in Italy are embrac­ing more sus­tain­able expe­ri­ences cen­tered on olive oil, local food tra­di­tions, and arti­sanal cul­ture.

A new report, pub­lished by the Qualivita Foundation and sup­ported by the Italian Ministry of Agriculture, Food Sovereignty, and Forestry, sheds light on a phe­nom­e­non that is reshap­ing how food excel­len­cies, such as olive oil, are pre­sented to tourists and con­sumers alike.

According to the ​“PDO Tourism — 1^st Report,” 70 per­cent of the tourism activ­i­ties asso­ci­ated with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) cer­ti­fied prod­ucts began in the last five years.

The report shows that PDO and PGI areas encom­pass more than 2,100 Italian towns, most of which are small borghi and vil­lages located in the inte­rior and rural regions.

Overall, PDO and PGI prod­ucts are worth €20 bil­lion, with more than 200,000 oper­a­tors and com­pa­nies involved.

PDO and PGI-cer­ti­fied foods are prod­ucts asso­ci­ated with spe­cific tra­di­tions and geo­gra­phies. The European Union-backed des­ig­na­tion pro­vides guar­an­tees of qual­ity and pro­duc­tion method, along with legal pro­tec­tion against imi­ta­tion prod­ucts.

In the case of extra vir­gin olive oil, Italy has 50 PDO and PGI cer­ti­fi­ca­tions, account­ing for nearly ten per­cent of the country’s total pro­duc­tion.

Tapping into tourism and link­ing it to the value con­veyed by PDO and PGI cer­ti­fi­ca­tions has become an addi­tional source of income for olive oil pro­duc­ers, farm­ers, millers and farm­houses.

“Wine has always ben­e­fited from the sup­port of restau­rants, which helped it grow in value and vol­ume. Olive oil, unfor­tu­nately, never had that priv­i­lege. It’s been the neglected sib­ling in the hos­pi­tal­ity world,” Mauro Rosati, direc­tor of the Qualivita Foundation and sci­en­tific coor­di­na­tor of the report, told Olive Oil Times.

According to Rosati, oleo­tourism, par­tic­u­larly when asso­ci­ated with PDO and PGI regions, pro­vides a pow­er­ful means to enhance com­mu­ni­ca­tion between pro­duc­ers and con­sumers.

“And not just to com­mu­ni­cate [olive oil’s] unique­ness in taste, but also its land­scape, its her­itage and what it means to care for the land. This kind of sto­ry­telling doesn’t often come through in tra­di­tional mar­ket­ing,” he explained.

“The Tuscany PGI suc­ceeds because, in the pop­u­lar imag­i­na­tion, it’s filled with rolling hills and olive groves,” Rosati said. ​“Still, smaller olive-grow­ing areas could also become ambas­sadors for their regions through olive oil.”

“If I take you to a grove in Garda, or any­where else, and show you how the olive oil is made, explain the land­scape and its iden­tity, you’ll pay €30 per kilo­gram for Riviera Ligure PDO with sat­is­fac­tion, because you’ll under­stand the true value of what you’re buy­ing,” he said.

“I’ve even paid €40 per kilo­gram to pro­duc­ers in Lucinasco,” Rosati added, refer­ring to a small munic­i­pal­ity of 320 res­i­dents in north­west­ern Italy, nes­tled in the Ligurian hills dot­ted with thou­sands of olive trees.

“That was a fair price, because I saw the dif­fi­culty of keep­ing those places alive. That’s the real impact of oleo­tourism: it helps cre­ate under­stand­ing and appre­ci­a­tion,” he said. ​“It’s essen­tial to tell the story of olive oil, where it comes from, how it’s made, and the region behind it.”

According to Rosati, pro­duc­ers who want to sell their extra vir­gin olive oil at a price that reflects the effort behind it can find in PDO and PGI tourism a ​“fast track to recog­ni­tion.”

“Of course, there’s always effort involved. Entrepreneurs must invest in their busi­nesses, in their con­sor­tia, in the ini­tia­tives they pro­mote,” Rosati said, refer­ring to the cru­cial role of the PDO and PGI con­sor­tia.

These con­sor­tia are pub­licly rec­og­nized non-profit enti­ties formed by local stake­hold­ers to pro­tect and pro­mote the geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tion.

Today, 320 con­sor­tia across Italy include tourism pro­mo­tion among their goals.

“Over the years, not exactly by chance but in a some­what spon­ta­neous way, the con­sor­tia have increas­ingly taken on a lead­ing role,” Rosati said.

“They real­ized that pro­mot­ing prod­ucts locally can be much more effec­tive than invest­ing large sums solely in inter­na­tional mar­kets, espe­cially now that there’s renewed inter­est in Italian regions and grow­ing demand from inter­na­tional tourism,” he added.

According to Rosati, many con­sor­tia have under­gone sig­nif­i­cant evo­lu­tion over the last ten years. And that is when Qualivita Foundation began mon­i­tor­ing their tourism activ­i­ties.

“Today, we’re fac­ing a real­ity we tried to cap­ture in this report: it’s no longer a blank slate, but a rich ecosys­tem of ini­tia­tives and expe­ri­ences that can improve, grow and become a struc­tured sys­tem capa­ble of wel­com­ing tourists and sup­port­ing the consortia’s mis­sion to raise aware­ness of cer­ti­fied prod­ucts,” Rosati said.

“The line between tourism and pro­mo­tion is always quite thin,” he added. ​“But the moment you orga­nize an engag­ing event, you’re essen­tially cre­at­ing both a pro­mo­tional and a tourist ini­tia­tive.”

In sev­eral regions, PDO and PGI con­sor­tia have invested in pro­mot­ing the unique link between food and local iden­tity.

“For exam­ple, Chianti Classico PDO has a wine museum, and the Modica PGI con­sor­tium now has a choco­late museum. Despite its small size, it per­fectly embod­ies what it means to build net­works. It’s about devel­op­ing infra­struc­ture that adds real value,” Rosati said.

One of the case stud­ies cited in the report involves the Umbrian Olive Oil Road, which is likely the most advanced oleo­tourism net­work in the coun­try, bring­ing together munic­i­pal­i­ties, olive oil mills, and pro­duc­ers.

“Looking at some exam­ples of such a net­work in action, we can pick the EVOO and Art Experience,” Daniela Tabarrini, direc­tor of the Umbrian Olive Oil Road, told Olive Oil Times.

The event is geared toward jour­nal­ists to raise aware­ness of the work and the ter­ri­to­ries behind high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil.

The pro­gram included vis­its to the town of Bettona and Villa Boccaglione, fol­lowed by tast­ings and guided tours of olive oil mills, some led by renowned tasters.

Participants could also choose to tour the Trasimeno Hills, includ­ing a fish­ing tourism expe­ri­ence and a focus on loca­tions linked to the Renaissance painter Perugino.

Another tour explored the hills between Assisi and Spoleto, fea­tur­ing vis­its to UNESCO World Heritage sites.

According to Tabarrini, these ini­tia­tives blend agri­cul­ture, his­tory and cul­tural iden­tity. They also aim to con­nect the olive prod­uct chain with tourism oper­a­tors.

“With the well-estab­lished Open Olive Oil Mills ini­tia­tive (Frantoi Aperti in Italian), sta­ble tourism itin­er­aries were cre­ated,” Tabarrini said.

Frantoi Aperti takes place dur­ing the har­vest sea­son, cel­e­brat­ing freshly pressed extra vir­gin olive oil.

The event spans sev­eral week­ends fea­tur­ing art, nature, food, and music, along with a vari­ety of cul­tural and agri­cul­tural activ­i­ties.

These include cycling and trekking routes through the iconic Umbrian hills, as well as con­certs in the region’s most scenic olive land­scapes.

The Umbrian Olive Oil Road and its net­work actively sup­port and pro­mote the ini­tia­tive.

“Due to the suc­cess of these ini­tia­tives, many olive oil mills are now open to vis­i­tors through­out the year, not just dur­ing the har­vest,” Tabarrini said.

“Over time, olive oil pro­duc­ers have real­ized that their land­scapes are attrac­tive. They’ve made them cleaner and more wel­com­ing. They rep­re­sent an oppor­tu­nity to talk about olive oil cul­ture, to nar­rate olive oil and, of course, to sell it,” she added.

One of the most inter­est­ing aspects of these devel­op­ments is that the Umbrian Olive Oil Road is now a grow­ing part of the regional econ­omy, with an increase in off-sea­son vis­its, new jobs and a sales uptick.

“We are not just talk­ing about the olive oil econ­omy, but the broader econ­omy tied to regional pro­duc­tion, cul­ture and agri­cul­ture. This is a very inter­est­ing devel­op­ment that could serve as a model for other Italian regions as well,” she con­cluded.