Olive Oil... Crime Sometimes Pays... For a while...

Click on the link (the title) for an interesting history by Tom Mueller of the New Yorker Magazine about adulteration and cheating going on in the Italian Olive Oil Industry.

A fascinating read.

Here are some key quotes:

March, 1993, Domenico Ribatti was arrested, along with his chief chemist and three other accomplices, and charged with contraband, fraud against the European Union, operating a criminal network, and other crimes.

Leonardo Colavita, the president of ASSITOL, the olive-oil trade association, and the owner of Colavita, the olive-oil company said, “Mim-mo Ribatti was a gentleman, because he didn’t name names. If he had named names, a lot of folks would have gone to jail.”

Paolo De Castro, the Italian agriculture minister, announced that the government had investigated seven hundred and eighty-seven olive-oil producers and found that two hundred and five were guilty of adulteration, false labelling, and other infractions.

“My experience over a period of some fifty years suggests that we can always expect adulteration and mislabelling of olive-oil products in the absence of surveillance by official sources,” David Firestone, an F.D.A. chemist who was the agency’s olive-oil specialist from the mid-sixties to 1999.

“We have to avoid distortions, not place limits on business. The important thing is that people don’t act like wise guys, and that this Tunisian oil doesn’t become extra-virgin olive oil from Puglia. Now, this is quite a little problem, eh?” said De Castro.

Thanks to TRR for the heads up about this article. It was good to reminisce about the criminals we have encountered in our professional lives... Funny how smooth they are when they pick your pockets! Less funny for me is how willing distributors are to look the other way as the sales of these "Olive" Oils show. Money is money, the less known the better is perhaps their motto.

I have long advocated knowing the source... It is never easy but well worth the effort be it in Olive Oil, Saffron, Capers or any product of value. There is so much profit to be gained by the unscrupulous producers at the expense of quality and more... So much to loose when the buyer is not paying attention...

Buyer Beware... Indeed...

Dancing Olives

Another example... But a sweet little video.

All Olives are NOT Equal

Does Raw Material and the handling of the Raw Material make a difference?

You be the Judge...

Olive Time is Coming

Olive crop recovers from paltry 2006 yield
Sacramento Business Journal - August 14, 2007by Celia LambStaff writer
California's olive harvest will be 368 percent higher than last year's disastrous crop, according to a U.S. Department of Agriculture forecast.

A report released Friday predicted the crop will total 110,000 tons, an increase from 23,500 tons last year. Yields will be about 3.55 tons per acre. That's a light crop, but much better than the 0.76 ton-per-acre average yield last year.

A freeze in January and erratic temperature swings in spring affected some trees, but overall the weather was more cooperative this year.

About 96,000 tons of olives will be canned and 14,000 tons will be pressed into oil, according to the report. With little left over from the crop last year, olive farmers can expect high revenue for their crops this year.

In Spain reports are still not clear...

Jesús Salazar, the president of Sos Cuétara, the world's largest olive oil bottler, has again gone on record stating that the harvest now on the trees will be the largest in history.

This is in direct contrast to the prediction from farmers' union COAG... This prognosis, however, does coincide with the recently low bids on the olive oil futures market, MFAO, the buy on March 2008 sitting at 2.10€. The two market makers for the MFAO are, by the way, the same Sos Cuétara and growers' macro-cooperative, Hojiblanca - the latter creating the offer.

Hmmmmm... We shall see.

Caper Crop Results are in...

And the prices as previously discussed (May 2007) show solid increases with Non Pareil up 50% and Surfines 25%.

I wait the final score from other areas but the facts are pretty clear... Morocco is not able to contribute to the supply pool in any quantity this year and with shelves bare, the dash is on to get material out of Turkey...

Book now folks!

California Olives

Californian Olive farmers to earn record prices according to the Food and Farm News... And the crop is larger than last years disastrous shortage... By how much??? We'll see.

This is when the prices started climbing last year... We'll see this year's impact.

Here's the blurb:
August 1st's
After a small harvest last year, demand for California-grown olives has risen, and farmers will earn a record price for their crops this year. The Olive Growers Council and olive canners have agreed on prices that will earn farmers an average of $1,000 a ton. Because of last year's small crop, stocks of canned olives are at a low point. California is the only state in the nation where olives are grown commercially.

July 30th's
Larger olive crop predicted
California's olive crop this year will produce about 112,000 tons. That's what a recent survey of olive sector leaders shows. That is considerably more than the meager 16,800 tons last year. However, water is becoming an issue in olive groves south of the delta. Surface water allocations are about gone, and growers have been pumping ground water. Now the water table is dropping, and if water is in short supply, the final crop could be much less than the projected 112,000 tons.