Italians Have Changed Their Olive Oil Purchase Habits, Survey Finds

According to a recent sur­vey, nearly one-half of Italian house­holds, 48 per­cent, reported that high extra vir­gin olive oil prices had not altered their pur­chas­ing or con­sump­tion habits. At the same time, slightly more than half said they had curbed their food spend­ing.

Conducted by NielsenIQ and the Italian Institute of Services for the Agricultural and Food Market (Ismea), the sur­vey also revealed that 17 per­cent of fam­i­lies have reduced their extra vir­gin olive oil con­sump­tion, with an addi­tional 23 per­cent buy­ing the prod­uct less fre­quently than before.

The sur­vey sam­pled 3,000 house­holds deemed rep­re­sen­ta­tive of Italy’s 25.7 mil­lion fam­i­lies and found that 11 per­cent of respon­dents now opt for less expen­sive, lower-qual­ity alter­na­tives to extra vir­gin olive oil.

Given the impact of infla­tion on fam­i­lies’ bud­gets and the effect of reduced pro­duc­tion on extra vir­gin olive oil prices, Ismea noted that Italian fam­i­lies are approach­ing gro­cery shop­ping much more care­fully than before.

Ninety per­cent of respon­dents pri­or­i­tize the price-qual­ity ratio in their food spend­ing habits, with 82 per­cent con­stantly seek­ing spe­cial offers and dis­counts.

According to offi­cial esti­mates, olive oil prices rose by 44 per­cent in Italy from 2022 to 2023. This sig­nif­i­cantly out­paced the per­ceived aver­age increase of 10.6 per­cent in over­all food prices.

“When look­ing at extra vir­gin olive oils, pasta, fruits and veg­eta­bles, con­sump­tion is con­sid­ered not reducible, even in the pres­ence of sig­nif­i­cant price increases,” Ismea wrote.

The sur­vey also found that 47 per­cent of fam­i­lies pre­fer to pur­chase extra vir­gin olive oil and other food prod­ucts pro­duced in Italy.

Ismea fur­ther noted the sig­nif­i­cant role of Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) cer­ti­fi­ca­tions in shap­ing con­sumer pur­chase deci­sions for extra vir­gin olive oil.

Fourteen per­cent of house­holds con­sider the pres­ence of PDO or PGI cer­ti­fi­ca­tions on extra vir­gin olive oil labels cru­cial, which is much higher than for any other food prod­uct, except for wine, which sits at 18 per­cent.

While the sec­tor is work­ing to engage cus­tomers and add value to the direct sales of extra vir­gin olive oil from olive mills and pro­duc­ers, 66 per­cent of con­sumers said they buy their food prod­ucts from large retail­ers, an eight-per­cent decrease com­pared to 2022.

The impact of cost­lier gro­ceries extends across var­i­ous sec­tors, with nearly one in four fam­i­lies cit­ing din­ing out less at restau­rants as a pri­mary or sec­ondary cost-sav­ing mea­sure.

Looking at the house­holds’ shop­ping cart, 62 per­cent of the fam­i­lies per­ceived that organic prod­uct prices rose more than con­ven­tional food prices. Seventy per­cent said they would buy non-organic prod­ucts to max­i­mize sav­ings.

According to Ismea, trends for 2024 show signs of recov­ery for food sales, as food infla­tion in February cooled to 3.8 per­cent from 5.8 per­cent reported in January. However, there is uncer­tainty regard­ing whether olive oil prices at ori­gin will fall.

The European Union sta­tis­tics agency, Eurostat, recently noted that European olive oil prices con­tin­ued to grow rapidly through­out 2023, reach­ing a 50 per­cent increase in January 2024 com­pared to January 2023.

“In January 2024, all the E.U. coun­tries reported an increase in the annual infla­tion for olive oil,” Eurostat reported. The steep­est increases were reported in Portugal (69 per­cent), Greece (67 per­cent) and Spain (63 per­cent), with Italy at 45 per­cent.

Price and qual­ity are not the only vari­ables affect­ing con­sumer deci­sion-mak­ing. Overall, olive oil con­sump­tion in Italy has been fol­low­ing a steadily decreas­ing trend in recent years.

According to the International Olive Council (IOC) esti­mates, Italians con­sumed 478,000 tons of olive oils in the 2022/23 crop year, with 415,000 expected for 2023/2024.

Looking at the recent past, Italians con­sumed 660,000 tons of olive oils in 2010/2011, 598,100 five years later and 421,000 in 2020/2021.

The sharp decline occurred before the stag­ger­ing price increases of the last two years, pri­mar­ily due to the impact of the Mediterranean megadrought on pro­duc­tion.