Articolo disponibile anche in: Italian

The last 10 years has been a difficult period for the olive oil producing sector in Italy. Recent data shows that the production of extra virgin olive oil has been falling drastically year after year.

What is most frightening is that out of total production, only 10% of the olive oil is high-quality. There are multiple causes: abandoned olive groves, lack of culture regarding the making of the oil, but mostly the arrival of olive oil from other countries without certification or traceability.

According to some, the solution would be to augment the production area with “innovative” techniques and “cultivar” foreign to Italy and to transform unique landscapes like Tuscany or Puglia as they do in Tunisia or Morocco.

If this occurred, we would destroy the heritage of our 533 “cultivar”, unique in the world, which only Italy possesses; “cultivar” which produce an oil with a very high content of phenols.

On September 29, on the occasion of National Olive Oil day in Florence,  launched by Coldiretti, I was able to send out a message: #salviamogliulivi (save the olives) in defense of the production of high quality olive oil from Italy.

Di Pietro Barachini