Olive oil: a liquid market
Paul Levy notes that Italian olive oil output is declining and prices seem to be going up. Are recent EU regulations actually helping?
A few weeks ago I received an alarming email from Armando Manni who makes what is certainly the most expensive olive oil in the world, and the one that a great many people think is also the best. He announced that his 2007 Organic Farming extra virgin olive oil Toscano IGP (Protected Geographical Indication) was ready to ship from Tuscany. But, in his own words:
“Unfortunately global warming in Italy has cut the olive oil production by almost 50%. It has been a disaster. Our production of the new harvest 2007 is only 1,500 litres instead of 2,600 litres. So, we’ll be sold out earlier this year”.
Try though I might to establish independently whether the Tuscan shortfall is universal or confined to Manni’s oil, or whether there’s any consensus about global warming being the cause, I’ve failed completely. But I’ve turned up a few interesting trifles worth considering.
(Be warned, almost nothing that follows is relevant to Manni’s own oil, whose price of €220 (£190) a litre reflects the cost of amortising his classy olive groves, pressing and bottling the oil using processes more commonly used for fine wine, and delivering it by ecologically-incorrect courier in 100ml anti-UV glass bottles.)
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Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 10:27 am under
