Columns/Coldiretti Puglia
With the war in Ukraine that has tripled production costs and the crazy climate with frosts and droughts that take away liquidity from companies and halve production, support arrives to modernize the oil mills, an opportunity in Puglia for 839 active mills to offer the market 5 DOP oils and the IGP Olio di Puglia.
The news was reported by Coldiretti Puglia, in relation to the publication of the Masaf decree relating to the “distribution in favor of the Regions and autonomous Provinces of 500 million euros (PNRR – Mission 2 component 1, Investment 2.3 – Innovation and mechanization in the agricultural and food sector) and the definition of the methods of issuing regional calls for tenders relating to 100 million destined for the sub-measure “modernization of oil mills”.
This is an opportunity – says Coldiretti Puglia – for the olive oil supply chain which is worth over 1.2 billion euros in its agricultural phase and 3 billion in the industrial phase, with Puglia producing almost 50% of the Made in Italy oil Italy. Olive growing in Puglia represents 32% (373 thousand hectares) of the entire Italian olive growing and 25% of the regional agricultural surface – adds Coldiretti Puglia – of which approximately half of the olive trees are centuries-old and 3-5 million specimens are even planetary, where between Bari and the BAT province there are 132 thousand hectares of olive trees, practically 35% of Apulian olive growing.
It also represents a breath of fresh air for the Salento oil mills that, due to Xylella, have sold production lines abroad and over 100 oil mills in the last 10 years have not opened their doors due to the collapse of olive production, but in addition to the tropicalization of the climate and Xylella, the producers of extra virgin olive oil in Puglia have been hit by price increases – says Coldiretti Puglia – with a total increase in average production costs, with direct and indirect price increases for fertilizers, glass, labels, cardboard, tin cans, and even plastic.
To support national production, resist climate change and defend national food sovereignty and the Mediterranean diet of which oil is a fundamental component – states Coldiretti Puglia – a strategic plan is needed for the construction of new olive groves with Italian varieties, resources for counteract the dizzying increase in the management costs of agricultural companies and create new irrigation systems but – insists Coldiretti Puglia – we also need infrastructural works for the maintenance, saving, recovery and recycling of water by strengthening the network of reservoirs in the territories, creating basins and using also the former quarries to collect rainwater in order to collect it when there is too much and manage its use when needed.
Coldiretti’s advice to support Apulian companies to avoid falling for the deception of false Made in Italy is to choose by carefully checking the label. On bottles of extra virgin olive oil obtained from foreign olives on sale in supermarkets – adds Coldiretti – it is almost impossible in the vast majority of cases to read the words “blends of community olive oils”, “blends of non-community olive oils” or “blends of community and non-community olive oils” required by law on olive oil labels. The wording – Coldiretti specifies – is shown in very small characters, placed behind the bottle and, in many cases, in a position on the label that makes it difficult to see so much so that consumers should shop with a magnifying glass to be able to choose consciously.
It is necessary to intervene to save a unique heritage of the country with millions of plants that protect the environment and biodiversity but also an economic system that is worth over 3 billion euros thanks to the work of a system of 400 thousand companies including agricultural companies, oil mills and processing industries that produce an important food for health that must not be missing from the tables of Italians, concludes Coldiretti in underlining the objective of relaunching a national production of olive oil also put at risk by the Nutriscore misleading, discriminatory and incomplete labeling system that paradoxically ends up excluding from the diet healthy and natural foods such as olive oil which is one of the pillars of the Mediterranean Diet known throughout the world thanks to its positive effects on longevity and health benefits.
