Not everyone knows it, but for some time a part of the oil industry has taken the path that seems the simplest: purchasing large volumes of low-cost foreign oil, often coming from North Africa, instead of investing in the valorisation of Italian extra virgin olive oil.
A mechanism which, as Coldiretti and Unaprol-Italian Olive Consortium denounce, alters the market, pushes prices downwards and makes it increasingly difficult for olive growers to even cover production costs, let alone live off their work.
Concerns returned to the center of the debate after the announcement of the start of negotiations between Tunisia and the European Union to expand the facilitated export quota, bringing it up to 100 thousand tonnes per year. A choice that fits into an already fragile context: Italy produces around 300 thousand tonnes of oil per year, consumes 400 thousand and in turn exports around 300 thousand.
Numbers that make it even more difficult to explain why the price of Italian oil paid to farmers has collapsed by around 30%. A paradox that refers to speculation and less than transparent practices along the supply chain.
Over the years, the associations explain, cases have emerged of foreign oil entering Italy and then being “nationalised” through opaque systems, insufficient controls and oil mills that exist more on paper than in reality. In this way, a product that has nothing Italian about it ends up on the shelves with misleading labels, fueling the illusion of a 100% made in Italy extra virgin olive oil. The consequences are evident: on the one hand, thousands of agricultural companies are pushed out of the market or forced to sell off their oil, on the other, consumers risk purchasing a product that does not meet expectations either in terms of origin or quality.
The most recent data confirm the trend: in the first nine months of 2025, imports of Tunisian oil into Italy increased by 38%, while the prices of Italian extra virgin olive oil recorded a drop of more than 20%. Oil coming from abroad is sold for less than 4 euros per litre, exerting downward pressure that only favors industrial margins and makes national production unsustainable. All this is made possible by European agreements which allow the annual entry of tens of thousands of tonnes of virgin olive oils at zero duty, thresholds which we would now like to further raise.
To complicate the picture there is also the mechanism of the so-calledactive improvement“, which allows oil to be imported, transformed and re-exported as a nationalized product. A system that passes costs onto the agricultural supply chain, damages the true Made in Italy and floods the market with low-priced oil, often obtained without the same environmental, social and production standards required of European olive growers.
The risk if this path is not corrected, the farmers conclude, is that of normalizing unfair competition that rewards the maximum discount to the detriment of quality, sustainability and transparency. At stake is not only the income of olive growers, but the credibility of an entire production system and the right of citizens to really know what they are buying.
