Rise in Production of Italian PDO and PGI Olive Oils, New Report Reveals

Summary

The lat­est report from Ismea and the Qualivita Foundation reveals a 3.6 per­cent increase in pro­duc­tion of Italian extra vir­gin olive oils with geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tions, reach­ing a record value of over €20 bil­lion despite chal­lenges in the macro­eco­nomic sce­nario. The report high­lights fluc­tu­a­tions in pro­duc­tion and export val­ues of dif­fer­ent PDO and PGI extra vir­gin olive oils, with the Italian GI agri-food sec­tor show­ing resilience and steady growth, sup­ported by the upcom­ing European law to strengthen pro­tec­tion and trace­abil­ity of GI prod­ucts.

The most recent report from the Italian Institute of Services for the Agricultural and Food Market (Ismea) and the Qualivita Foundation shows a 3.6 per­cent increase in the pro­duc­tion of Italian extra vir­gin olive oils with a geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tion (GI).

The two orga­ni­za­tions empha­sized that despite a macro­eco­nomic sce­nario marked by the energy and cli­mate cri­sis, the Italian GI agri-food sec­tor reached record lev­els, ris­ing above €20 bil­lion in pro­duc­tion value for the first time.

According to the report, extra vir­gin olive oils with Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) cer­ti­fi­ca­tions reached a vol­ume of almost 13,500 tons (a 3.6‑percent increase).

At the same time, their export value expe­ri­enced a slight 0.3 per­cent decrease, slip­ping to €62 mil­lion at the end of 2022.

“These fig­ures reflect an olive oil cam­paign char­ac­ter­ized by abun­dant pro­duc­tion in the south­ern regions and lower vol­umes in the cen­ter and north of Italy that resulted in a poor avail­abil­ity of some PDOs and PGIs,” Tiziana Sarnari, an Ismea mar­ket ana­lyst, told Olive Oil Times.

“In par­tic­u­lar, the drop in pro­duc­tion of the Toscano PGI, which is one of the GI prod­ucts with the high­est price, led to a slight decline in the pro­duc­tion value and in the con­sumer value of the entire seg­ment, which reached €85 mil­lion (a four per­cent decline) and €142 mil­lion (a 5.7 per­cent decline) respec­tively,” she added.

“Still, the sec­tor is in good shape, with the strong per­for­mance of the Sicilian prod­ucts,” Sarnari con­tin­ued. ​“The Sicilia PGI has con­tin­ued to grow and become the third geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tion by value, while the exports of the Valli Trapanesi PDO dou­bled.”

Italy boasts 42 PDO and eight PGI extra vir­gin olive oils with almost 23,500 oper­a­tors involved in the sec­tor, which enjoyed a decade of steady growth and only saw a tem­po­rary set­back due to the Covid-19 pan­demic restric­tions, as indi­cated by pre­vi­ous reports by Ismea and Qualivita.

Currently, the country’s top five GI extra vir­gin olive oils are Terra di Bari PDO (€24 mil­lion), which accounts for the largest share of the value of the entire GI agri-food sec­tor of the Puglia region; Toscano PGI (€17 mil­lion); Sicilia PGI (€10); Val di Mazara PDO (€8.3) and Riviera Ligure DOP (€4 mil­lion).

Combined, these five PDOs and PGIs rep­re­sent 75 per­cent of the total value of the GI extra vir­gin olive oils. Terra di Bari PDO and Toscana PGI alone account for 49 per­cent of the total value.

The sys­tem of Protected Designations of Origin and Protected Geographical Indications was cre­ated to pro­tect the qual­ity stan­dards and pro­duc­tion meth­ods of agri-food prod­ucts while pro­vid­ing greater prove­nance guar­an­tees for con­sumers.

Introduced in the E.U. with Regulation 2081/1992 and later replaced by Regulation 510/2006, leg­is­la­tion defin­ing and pro­tect­ing GIs has evolved and improved.

In the first months of 2024, a new European law will come into force to strengthen the pro­tec­tion of GI prod­ucts.

Among the inno­va­tions intro­duced by the reg­u­la­tory frame­work is the more effec­tive pro­tec­tion of GIs sold online and used as ingre­di­ents in processed prod­ucts, as well as improved trace­abil­ity of pro­duc­ers.

Moreover, the law aims to strengthen the func­tion of the Protection Consortia, whose role in Italy has devel­oped in par­al­lel with the sec­tor’s growth.

There are cur­rently 24 con­sor­tia for pro­tect­ing the country’s PDO and PGI extra vir­gin olive oils, which are increas­ingly com­mit­ted to safe­guard­ing the prod­ucts and their ter­ri­to­ries and pro­mot­ing cul­tural and tourist itin­er­aries.

• Ismea