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

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