Drafted 24 February 2023, updated 18 August 2025
The unstoppable decline of Italian extra virgin olive oil: last in investment and trade
by Giorgio dell’Orefice
Nomisma data at the presentation of the results of the supply chain agreement between Confagricoltura and Carapelli. In Italy 619 thousand olive farms, twice as many as those producing fruit, but production has halved since 2010
We are at the ‘extra virgin of citizenship’. A social phenomenon, not a market phenomenon. There are still 619 thousand olive farms in Italy, many more than those producing fruit (330 thousand), cereals (325 thousand) and wine (255 thousand). But despite this significant number , Italian olive oil production is in constant decline. From 2010 to date, it has in fact almost halved from 500 thousand tonnes to the 270 thousand planned for the 2022-23 marketing year.
And this is mainly because 42% of Italian farms have less than two hectares of olive groves, which means that slightly less than half of olive farms are dedicated to hobby production or for self-consumption only.
Only 2.5% of Italian companies, in fact, have more than 50 hectares against 7.5% in Spain. These are the figures released by Nomisma on 14 February during the presentation of the results of the supply chain agreement signed in 2018 between Confagricoltura and Carapelli Firenze.
“These are figures that draw an olive-growing industry that should be considered more as a social phenomenon than a true production sector,” said Denis Pantini of Nomisma . “And even more worrying figures emerge from the data oninvestments in which Italy is at the tail end of the list.
Between 2011 and 2021, in fact, olive-growing areas increased by 41.6% in Chile, 39.5% in Argentina, 22.6% in Morocco, 11.4% in Turkey, 10.9% in Portugal, 5.4% in Spain (thus growing even in what is already the world’s leading producer), and even 0.4% in France, while olive-growing areas are falling by 3.5% in Italy.
Numbers are also confirmed by figures on world olive oil trade. Between 2011 and 2021, Turkey’s exports increased by 16.4%, Portugal’s by 14.8%, Tunisia’s by 9.8%, Chile’s by 9.7% and France’s by 8.2%. Compared to an average world trade that has grown by 6.2% in ten years, that of Made in Italy has increased by only 3%.
Under these conditions, in a few years Italy will remain a marginal player and will be overtaken by new and old players in the olive oil sector’…
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