US Olive Oil Imports Head Past 300,000 Tons, Spain Gains Fast
American imports of olive oil are on course to pass 300,000 tons for the season that ended in September, according to the International Olive Council, after reaching 290,227 tons in the first eleven months, up 7 percent. Italy still ships the most, but Spain’s share is rising fastest. Here is who is supplying the American bottle, what the grades tell you, and why “from Italy” and “Italian olives” are not the same thing.
The numbers
The figures come from the IOC’s October market newsletter, reported by Olive Oil Times this week. They cover October 2011 to August 2012, the first eleven months of the 2011/12 crop year, with September data still to come. The council says 98 percent of US imports came from its member countries: 81 percent from the European Union and 17 percent from the rest.
| Supplier | Tons, Oct 2011 to Aug 2012 | Change on a year earlier |
|---|---|---|
| Italy | 143,656 | +4 percent |
| Spain | 84,371 | +35 percent |
| Tunisia | 30,308 | +24 percent |
| Argentina | 8,997 | +33 percent |
| Greece | 5,222 | +30 percent |
| All sources | 290,227 | +7 percent |
By grade, 65 percent of what arrived was virgin oil (the customs heading that includes extra virgin), 30 percent was the refined blend sold as “olive oil,” and 5 percent was olive pomace oil. Spain’s own export statistics show an even bigger jump in shipments to the US, 51 percent, and the IOC puts the gap down to the usual differences between export and import data. Elsewhere, imports rose in Russia, Japan and Brazil, and China’s full-season imports reached nearly 46,000 tons, but they fell by 4 percent in Canada and 3 percent in Australia.
Why Spain is catching up
Spain had a record 2011/12 harvest: its Olive Oil Agency puts production at 1,613,400 tons, up 16 percent, and the IOC says Spanish exports outside the EU rose 26 percent. With that much oil and prices low for most of the season, Spanish sellers pushed hard into their biggest non-EU markets. That is why Spain’s line in the US table grows by a third while Italy’s barely moves.
What it means for the bottle
Italy’s figure is not a count of Italian olives. Italy is a big importer as well as a big producer: the European Commission’s July outlook puts its imports at a little under 500,000 tons a year. Much of the oil Italy ships to America is blended and bottled there from Spanish, Greek, Tunisian and Italian oils. Europe requires the true origin on virgin and extra virgin labels, as we explained in How to Read an Olive Oil Label, so the back label is where to look.
- “Packed in Italy” or “Imported from Italy” is about where the bottle was filled.
- “Blend of EU oils” or a list of countries is about where the olives grew.
- A third of US imports are not virgin grade at all, which is why “olive oil” and “light” bottles are so cheap.
Customs data count where oil was shipped from, not where the olives grew. A tanker of Spanish oil trucked to a Tuscan bottling plant and shipped to New Jersey shows up as Italian in the American numbers. That is legal, and it has been the business model of the big Italian bottlers for decades. It is also why the flag on the front of the bottle tells you less than the small print on the back.
Sources
- International Olive Council: Market Newsletter No 65, October 2012 (PDF)
- Olive Oil Times: U.S. Olive Oil Imports Continue Steady Climb
- European Commission: Prospects for the olive oil sector in Spain, Italy and Greece 2012-2020 (PDF)