Report Reveals Growing Number of Olive Producers in Northern Italy

The Italian Institute of Services for the Agricultural and Food Market (Ismea) pub­lished its annual report on the olive oil indus­try, reveal­ing an increase in the num­ber of olive oil com­pa­nies in north­ern Italy and a steady growth of organic pro­duc­tion at a national level.

From 2010 to 2020, the largest increase (202 per­cent) of olive oil com­pa­nies was reg­is­tered in Piedmont, where the num­ber of busi­nesses tripled from 641 to 1,939.

This was fol­lowed by Lombardy, where the fig­ure more than dou­bled (132 per­cent) from 1,939 to 4.506. Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Valle d’Aosta, Trentino-Alto Adige and Emilia-Romagna saw increases of 61 per­cent, 51 per­cent, 25 per­cent and 12 per­cent, respec­tively.

During that period, how­ever, the num­ber of olive oil com­pa­nies in the cen­tral and south­ern regions decreased by 31 per­cent, amount­ing to 619,378 in 2020, when the Italian National Institute of Statistics (ISTAT) con­ducted the lat­est agri­cul­tural cen­sus.

On the other hand, the sur­face ded­i­cated to olive cul­ti­va­tion in Italy has not changed sig­nif­i­cantly in recent years, amount­ing to 1,135,837 hectares in 2023. Still, the regions of Piedmont, Liguria, Sicily and Veneto have seen the largest increases, namely 16 per­cent, 13 per­cent, 10 per­cent and 7 per­cent, respec­tively.

“It has become clear that due to cli­mate change, pro­duc­tion is increas­ing in the north over the medium-long term, notwith­stand­ing that the major­ity of Italian out­put still comes from the other areas of the coun­try,” Tiziana Sarnari, Ismea’s mar­ket ana­lyst and report edi­tor, told Olive Oil Times.

“It is not a major change, but there are some shifts that allow us to think that olive grow­ing can find new spaces of devel­op­ment in the north­ern regions, too,” she added.

The report also says that the area ded­i­cated to organic-cer­ti­fied olive farm­ing in Italy is increas­ing.

Significant growth occurred from 2013 to 2018, and then a slower but steady expan­sion led the coun­try’s organic olive sur­face to 272,000 hectares in 2022. Puglia accounts for 30 per­cent of this fig­ure, closely fol­lowed by Calabria (28 per­cent), Sicily (15 per­cent), Tuscany (eight per­cent), Lazio and Campania (four per­cent).

The organic area rep­re­sents 24 per­cent of the country’s total sur­face ded­i­cated to olive oil pro­duc­tion, while organic-cer­ti­fied extra vir­gin olive oils account for 15 per­cent of the country’s total olive oil pro­duc­tion.

Most of the organic-cer­ti­fied pro­duc­tion comes from the south­ern regions. In par­tic­u­lar, between 2019 and 2022, on aver­age, Puglia accounted for almost half (46 per­cent) of the Italian organic extra vir­gin olive oils, fol­lowed by Calabria (30 per­cent) and Sicily (12 per­cent).

Smaller per­cent­ages came from Tuscany (four per­cent) and Lazio (two per­cent), fol­lowed by Campania and the other cen­tral and south­ern regions (one per­cent each).

“The south remains the area with the largest pro­duc­tion of organic extra vir­gin olive oils, both because it accounts for most of the national olive oil pro­duc­tion and also for cli­matic rea­sons,” Sarnari said.

“In gen­eral, we are see­ing greater atten­tion from farm­ers towards a more sus­tain­able agro­nomic man­age­ment and an increased aware­ness about this aspect among con­sumers,” she added.