Not only that: in recent years, extra virgin olive oil has strengthened its leadership despite its higher price.
Italians like good oil and are willing to choose even the most rewarding categories such as DOP oils, organic oils, 100% made in Italy oils, and single-variety oils that come from single varieties of olive tree.
Let's say that approximately 20% of the extra virgin olive oil consumer market is made up of products with a well-defined identity and flavor profile.
Among the most frequently asked questions by oil consumers are: how much does extra virgin olive oil cost? What is the right price for extra virgin olive oil?
The trend in oil prices is a very broad variable that takes into account several factors:
- the raw materials
- the costs of the production process
- the workforce employed
- market performance and inflation
- the vintage (it can happen that due to the climate or bad weather, the olive harvest is more or less rich)
For example, last year, the estimates were not rosy.
Fortunately, the 2021/22 international production campaign proved to be anything but poor, with production of approximately 3.4 million tonnes (+13%).
Oil prices and climate change
We will have to get used to it: climate change will affect olive cultivation , the resulting fruit harvests and the prices we will find on the market.
Among the most worrying factors is the lack of irrigation in many Italian olive-growing areas.
In many areas, emergency irrigation is used, but it often reaches its limits after months without rainfall.
This year the rains only began at the end of August, bringing the hoped-for relief to the olive trees.
In addition to global warming and the problems that arise from it, the alternation of production must be considered .
What does it mean? Alternating olive yield is a perennial problem that recurs cyclically: a year of abundant production is followed by a year of low yield. The cycle is usually biennial, but under unfavorable conditions (such as increasing climate change), the low yield year can last two or three years.
Oil price trends
Olive oil prices in Italy in 2022 recorded a slight decline for extra virgin olive oil, compared to increases in the lampante and refined olive oil segments.
This trend can be explained by the fact that the latter have a market more closely related to that of seed oils, which have recorded double-digit increases since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.
In fact, at the end of February 2022 , almost all Ukrainian companies declared a state of emergency because they could not meet their deliveries due to port closures. Faced with the unavailability of supplies, demand from the food industry remained essentially constant, so the prices of both sunflower and corn oil skyrocketed, also pushing up the prices of substitute products that were intended to replace them.
After the spring surge in wholesale prices for seed oils, especially sunflower and corn, the summer saw a reversal of the trend, although prices remain well above pre-conflict levels. Refined olive oil prices, however, continue to rise, surpassing the €4,000 per ton mark in the first week of September, an increase of over 50% compared to February 2022.
Puglia boasts the highest levels of provincial olive and oil production in Italy in the 2021/22 campaign, with the highest percentages of mills present, oil produced, and olives pressed.
So how can we calculate the average final price of a quality extra virgin olive oil?
Here are some guidelines to help you understand the average price of extra virgin olive oil in Italy:
- 90 euros: a quintal of olives harvested in 2022-2023 has this average price
- the oil yield from a quintal of olives is approximately 14 litres (olive yields vary)
- Processing in the mill costs around 20 euros per quintal
- €7.20: how much oil costs on average per liter to its producers.
- Approximately 2 euros: this is the cost that must be added to cover the steps involved in placing the oil in the tank, filtering it, bottling it and shipping it (to be calculated for each bottle)
To these prices must be added the company's margins and obviously the cost of VAT.
When can we get lower prices for extra virgin olive oil?
- when the producers are industrial and have more margin on the larger sale
- when the olives are not 100% Italian: generally if they come from intensively cultivated areas they have lower costs
- when they are old oils that are chemically modified, through processes that affect the smell and color: it is counterfeit oil
Quality extra virgin olive oil is a product that is almost never missing from Italian homes, even though its price is often frightening.
Even a 500ml bottle of quality extra virgin olive oil can cost between 15 and 20 euros.
What do we mean by quality extra virgin olive oil? Not the kind you find on supermarket shelves, where prices vary greatly.
Try an oil from a large-scale retailer and an extra virgin olive oil from a quality producer : what's the difference?
The aroma and the flavors. You don't have to be a great expert to recognize them.
You can feel the passion, the emotion and the work behind it.
Price is relative: how much do we spend on a good bottle of wine? And on coffee?
In fact, a different approach is needed: it is not an oil to be wasted but to be used with care, to be poured raw on a plate of steaming pasta or on crunchy vegetables just out of the oven.
Extra virgin olive oil should be seen as a daily treat , a small luxury to indulge in during mealtimes, which we know are sacred.
