Rather than waiting for the outcome of a judicial review of the ban or abandoning projects altogether, some developers are turning to the exemption for so-called agri-photovoltaic (PV) projects, where solar panels raised at least 2.1 meters above the ground are integrated into ongoing agricultural activities.

Among the companies making the pivot is CCE Italia, which produced olive oil from one of its agri-PV projects in central Italy. 

 ”Companies like ours must evolve from solar PV to agri-solar PV projects,” Sandro Esposito, CCE Italia’s managing director, told Olive Oil Times. “ This is a new economic sector where we can combine perfectly the agronomic side with the company.”

Esposito discovered about 1,000 olive trees on a plot of land purchased by the company for solar panel installation in the Canino comune of the Lazio region.

With the passage of the Agricultural Law Decree in May 2024, he saw an opportunity to leverage the company’s renewable energy resources to create a competitive advantage in the agriculture sector.

The company invested €200,000 in relocating the Canino trees, which were aged between 50 and 70 years, to create space for a more compact photovoltaic layout and to install a solar-powered irrigation system.

At the end of 2024, CCE Italia harvested olives for the first time, producing 700 bottles of organic olive oil on the same estate as the 14-megawatt solar plant, which is expected to be connected to the grid this year.

Esposito said that using solar power has significantly reduced the company’s irrigation costs and decreased the carbon footprint of the olive oil. 

“The energy needed for the production came only from renewables,” he said. “So the carbon footprint of this olive oil is negative,” citing additional technology to capture carbon at the solar plant.

Rather than sell the olive oil, Esposito said the company will give the bottles away, using them as a communication tool to promote synergy between olive oil production and other agricultural activities, as well as solar PV development.

“ In the evaluation of the old business model, at the end, you have an impact on the capital expenditure side for the buildup [of the agricultural side of the agri-PV project], but you will also have the income stream gained from selling [the wine or olive oil],” he said.

Indeed, Milan-based Elemens Energy Boutique Consulting estimated that 62 percent, or 94 gigawatts, of solar projects undergoing permitting in Italy would not be affected by the ban, as they would benefit from the carveout for agri-PV projects.

While Esposito plans to expand from olive oil production into cheese and winemaking with new agri-PV developments centered around vineyards and sheep pastures, he lamented the politics behind the ban.

“If we want to cover all our needs from renewables within 2050, we need only two percent of all the agricultural land in Italy,” he said. According to Italia Solare, only 0.13 percent, or 16,600 hectares of Italy’s available agricultural land, is covered by utility-scale solar. 

Despite Esposito’s claim, there has been significant pushback from some portions of the country’s agricultural sector against utility-scale solar. 

Coldiretti, Italy’s most powerful farmers’ union, welcomed the ban when it was announced, citing the need to prevent institutional investors from buying large swaths of farmland to develop solar projects or resell at higher prices to developers. 

“We cannot accept the shortcut of photovoltaics,” said Luigi Pio Scordamaglia, Coldiretti’s director of international policies. “We don’t want to accept the inertia of an administration that decided not to invest and improve irrigation. We want to realize the full productive potential of that land again.”

Esposito, other developers and consultants in the sector have denied that any speculation is occurring. Indeed, other farmers have hailed the partnership between solar developers and farmers as a lifeline. 

“Photovoltaics are a salvation for us, a gift from the heavens,” Emanuele Bocchicchio, a farmer in the southern region of Basilicata, told the Financial Times. 

Bocchicchio earns €3,000 per hectare per annum from the 44 hectares he rents out to a local solar developer. The farmer said the land is fallow due to a lack of irrigation, combined with an increasingly hot and dry climate. 

“No one is obliged to give their land for solar panels, it’s a free choice,” he said. “In marginal areas like this, it’s vital.”

An estimated four million hectares of designated farmland lie fallow in Italy, approximately one-quarter of the total, due to poor soil quality, a lack of irrigation, and labor shortages.

“This government has to look at the reality of the farmers: every year the climate conditions are a little bit worse,” Camillo Rossi, a lawyer who has leased about 100 hectares of his family’s agricultural land to a solar developer, told the Financial Times. 

“We don’t have the potential to irrigate. That’s what determined the choice of solar panels,” he added.

“We are waiting to shortly confirm a mandate from the European Commission for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) to assess the study,” a commission spokesperson told Olive Oil Times.

“Once we receive all the raw data and information needed to assess the study properly, we will evaluate whether the findings reported in the study would impact the conclusions that we and the European Chemicals Agency reached in our latest assessments of the safety of glyphosate in 2023,” the commission explained.

Following the review, the current EFSA stance on glyphosate may change, a decision that will inform the EU’s regulatory activity regarding the popular herbicide.

A new investigation into the potential health risks associated with glyphosate has emerged from a recent paper on long-term exposure, published by Environmental Health.

The paper, authored by a team of international researchers and several scientists from the Italian Ramazzini Institute, provides new evidence of the carcinogenic potential of glyphosate and glyphosate-based herbicides, such as Roundup Bioflow and RangerPro.

Herbicides are often used in olive farming to control weeds growing under the trees, thereby reducing competition for water and nutrients.

Many olive growers appreciate how its use can simplify field management, lower labor costs and avoid mechanical weeding.

The recent research is part of the Global Glyphosate Study, a multi-institutional project designed to thoroughly assess the toxicity of the compound, from prenatal life through old age.

According to the research, scientists administered glyphosate and two commercial herbicides to Sprague–Dawley rats for two years, starting on the sixth day of gestation.

Commonly used in biomedical research, Sprague–Dawley rats are known for their calm temperament and genetic diversity. Due to these traits, they are widely used in long-term toxicology and cancer studies.

Their predictable growth and health profiles make them a trusted model for evaluating potential health risks in humans.

The research tested doses including the European Union’s acceptable daily intake.

The results show a statistically significant increase in both benign and malignant tumors in multiple organs, including skin, liver, thyroid, nervous system, kidneys, spleen and pancreas.

The research also highlighted the increase in leukemia cases, many of which led to early deaths (less than one year of age), a finding considered extremely rare in this species.

According to the researchers, their findings strengthen those announced in 2015 by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), which classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

The researchers also noted that their results are consistent with epidemiological evidence on the health effects of glyphosate-based herbicides.

The European Commission spokesperson recalled that during the peer review of glyphosate’s safety in 2023, all information made available by the latest scientific research was taken into consideration.

The spokesperson also explained that EFSA and ECHA would need to review the raw data to reach a correct assessment.

“It’s important we apply the same standard of scientific scrutiny to studies carried out by researchers as we would to studies we receive from industry,” the spokesperson said.

The commission also confirmed that it has already requested raw data about the ongoing research from the Ramazzini Institute in the past few years.

“Unfortunately, we did not receive them,” the spokesperson said. “The raw data are important to allow us to verify the methodology used, the composition of test material and the results of a study.”

“In this case, reviewing the raw data would be especially relevant as the findings appear to contradict the main body of evidence and the conclusions reached by EFSA, ECHA and many other regulatory bodies around the world on the safety of glyphosate,” the spokesperson added. 

For years, glyphosate has been at the center of a heated global debate about its safety.

Specific forms of the substance were blocked by courts in France in 2019.

In other cases, environmental organizations have protested against the lack of government action on glyphosate, including in Spain when a high concentration of the herbicide was found in the waters of Mar Menor, a coastal lagoon in the southeastern autonomous community of Murcia.

Several studies also sparked public concern, one of which provided evidence that following a non-organic Mediterranean diet can expose consumers to pesticides and herbicides, namely glyphosate.

Olive Oil Times contacted the authors involved in the Environmental Health study, but they were unavailable for comment.

Two significant heatwaves resulted in “very strong heat stress” across large swatches of southern and western Europe, including the olive oil-producing countries of France, Portugal and Spain.

Copernicus reported that Portugal, the world’s sixth-largest olive oil producer, experienced “extreme heat stress” in June, with feels-like temperatures reaching 48 ºC. Meanwhile, neighboring Spain, the world’s largest producer, faced its hottest June in 64 years.

“June 2025 saw an exceptional heatwave impact large parts of western Europe, with much of the region experiencing very strong heat stress,” said Samantha Burgess, the strategic lead for climate at the European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts.

“This heatwave was made more intense by record sea surface temperatures in the western Mediterranean,” she added. “In a warming world, heatwaves are likely to become more frequent, more intense and impact more people across Europe.”

According to data from Copernicus, Europe is the fastest-warming continent, with average temperatures rising at twice the global average. 

The service attributed faster warming in Europe to shifting weather patterns that bring more frequent heatwaves, reduced air pollution allowing more solar radiation to reach the surface and its proximity to the rapidly warming Arctic.

The current heatwaves have come at a delicate moment for olive growers in the three countries, which combined to produce an estimated 1.6 million metric tons in the 2024/25 crop year, accounting for 47 percent of total global production.

However, Juan Vilar, the chief executive of the Jaén-based olive oil consultancy Vilcon, said this year’s extreme temperatures have not impacted the olive groves as severely as the intensely hot and dry conditions in 2022 and 2023, which resulted in two historically low harvests.

“To be clear: heat does affect olive trees, but it usually doesn’t have much impact, except when it comes with wind,” Vilar said. “Despite the heat waves, I’ve been out visiting the olive groves, and so far I haven’t seen any serious effects.”

“Also, rainfall has been plentiful and the soil still retains some moisture,” he added. “So, while [the extreme temperatures are] not ideal, it hasn’t had a dramatic effect on the upcoming harvest yet. If this were combined with a series of other negative factors, it could have harmful consequences, but for now, that hasn’t happened.”

While noting that abundant winter rainfall has replenished aquifers and will enable irrigated olive groves — which account for 30 percent of the country’s total — to water as needed, Vilar warned that a prolonged summer of extreme heat could still reduce the harvest.

“After a certain point, the olive tree protects itself. To enter this self-defense mode, it drops the olives,” Vilar said. “This would lead to a lower national olive yield, which would have a negative impact on olive oil production.”

• Copernicus

The announcement comes after intense lobbying from agricultural interest groups, and despite the European Commission’s desire to merge several funding streams into a single “national and regional partnerships” payment delivered to each capital.

The objective of the budget reforms is to boost Europe’s defense spending and economic competitiveness, but came after the European Commission acknowledged that many small farms would go out of business without the direct payments made through the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP).

In a petition addressed to the commission, more than 3,100 farming groups said combining the CAP into the single payment would leave farmers at risk of losing out to emerging priorities, such as energy and defence.

Despite separating direct payment for farmers from the rest of the budget, European Commission officials expect the overall budget of the CAP to fall from its current €386 billion, which represents about one-third of the E.U. spending.

Carmen Crespo, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the center-right Popular Party in Spain and the former agriculture minister of olive oil-soaked Andalusia, defended the need to ringfence CAP payments to farmers.

“The CAP can only continue to do its job if it is separated from cohesion funds,” she said at a press conference. “The CAP is the true foundation of agriculture as a key strategic sector in Europe’s trade balance.”

According to El Economista, merging the direct payments to farmers and CAP into the single payment scheme would have cut payments to farmers by up to 20 percent. Andalusia, the world’s largest olive oil-producing region by a significant margin, received €1.3 billion from the CAP in 2024.

The move to ringfence direct payments to farmers comes after widespread protests by farmers in 2023 and 2024 led the European Commission to propose changes to the CAP, including loosening environmental rules for small farmers.

The budget debate is also taking place against the backdrop of ongoing trade negotiations between the United States and the European Union.   

European negotiations told the Financial Times they expect to sign a temporary “framework,” agreeing to the baseline ten percent tariff rate the U.S. has imposed on nearly every country since the start of April, until a deal can be reached. 

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture data, the United States imported $1.5 (€1.4) billion of olive oil from Greece, Italy and Spain in 2023, the last year for which a complete data set exists.

President Donald J. Trump has set a deadline of August 1st to conclude trade negotiations before implementing a 30 percent tariff on imports from the E.U.

The Trump administration has also sent letters to more than a dozen other countries, imposing new tariff rates set to come into force on August 1st, including a 25 percent tariff on Tunisia.

The North African country, which World Bank data show was the third-largest olive oil exporter to the U.S. in 2023, previously faced a 28 percent tariff.

Trump also announced the reinstatement of 30 percent tariffs on South Africa, which exported 35,500 kilograms of virgin and extra virgin olive oil to the U.S. in 2023. Algeria, which shipped nearly 20,000 kilograms that year, also faces the original 30 percent tariff.

• FT
• El Economista

According to Infaoliva, prices at origin for extra virgin olive oil, virgin and lampante have fallen to their lowest levels since June 2022, with extra virgin at €3.358 per kilogram, virgin at  €3.092 and lampante at €2.953.

The sharp drop in prices at origin has prompted the Andalusian chapter of Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias, an agricultural cooperative union, to call for the withdrawal of excess olive oil from the market under Article 167 of E.U. Regulation 1308/2013, calling it “absolutely necessary.”

“This is a mandatory olive oil withdrawal mechanism activated in situations of clear risk of market imbalance,” Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias wrote on its website. “It allows for supply regulation without compromising the viability of olive farms, especially the most vulnerable, such as those cultivated using dry land, which occupy more than 70 percent of the surface area.”

However, Juan Vilar, the chief executive of olive oil consultancy Vilcon, said it is still too early to talk about taking olive oil off the market and “negatively affecting price trends.”

“We also don’t know what next year’s production will be; to discuss using a tool that would artificially influence prices, there’s still no justification for that,” he said, anticipating that the announcement could contribute to the downward trend of prices.

According to Vilar, the trigger prices that would engage the current olive oil storage mechanism sit at €1.78 per kilogram of extra virgin, €1.71 per kilogram of virgin and €1.50 per kilogram of lampante olive oil. “Prices still haven’t fallen to those critical stress levels,” he said. 

If it were to be enacted, the current European olive oil storage protocol works through a market-based tender where a producer offers to hold a specific volume of virgin or extra virgin olive oil in a sealed tank for at least 180 days based on a price set by the European Union.

“After those 180 days, the oil returns to the market. And because the producer didn’t flood the market with its olive oil, the producer receives a subsidy, which is also set by the European Union according to the tenders held at that time,” Vilar said. 

“The idea is to immobilize olive oil in the mill in a controlled way so that, by temporarily removing it from the market, it helps slow down the drop in prices,” he added.

For his part, Vilar does not expect the Spanish and European authorities to change the mechanism, so current price levels will not trigger it.

However, Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias Andalusia is concerned that, if olive oil production reaches the optimistic estimate of 1.6 million metric tons in the 2025/26 crop year, then prices will continue to fall.

For many medium and larger producers, prices lower than €3 per kilogram make their operations unprofitable. Smaller producers say that prices below €7 per kilogram are unsustainable, though they usually prioritize quality and sell above market rates anyway.

According to Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Spain has 762,800 tons of olive oil stocks after the first eight months of the 2024/25 crop year, 55 percent more than at the same period last year and eight percent above the four-year average.

Based on current market dynamics, Spain is likely to start the coming 2025/26 crop year on October 1st with olive oil stocks slightly exceeding 400,000 tons, the average of the previous four years.

“The mandatory withdrawal mechanism must be activated when the value of olive oil availability (production, stocks and imports) estimated for the campaign significantly exceeds average outputs (domestic market and exports),” Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias Andalusia wrote.

• Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

The research, published in the European Journal of Public Health, tested how Portuguese consumers reacted to both labeling systems.

Serge Hercberg, the inventor of Nutri-Score, and other prominent scientists involved in the development of the French FOPL co-authored the study.

Their findings suggest that Nutri-Score is more effective in helping consumers understand the nutritional value of food and make healthier purchasing decisions.

The study involved 1,014 adults in Portugal and compared the two FOPLs across various food categories, including breakfast products, breakfast cereals and added fats.

“Nutri-Score appeared to be a more appreciated and effective tool than Nutrinform Battery for helping Portuguese consumers to choose foods with a better nutritional composition,” the authors wrote.

Participants using Nutri-Score were significantly more successful in identifying more nutritional products.

In a task involving three breakfast-related products, those using Nutri-Score were 28 times more likely to correctly identify the healthiest options compared to those using Nutrinform Battery.

In the “added fats” category, participants in the Nutri-Score group were 17 times more successful in choosing the healthiest fat.

Overall, participants exposed to Nutri-Score were more likely to choose healthier products across all tested food categories.

Regarding olive oil specifically, 83 percent of participants in the Nutri-Score group said they would purchase olive oil more often, compared to 66 percent in the Nutrinform Battery group.

Nutri-Score is a traffic-light-style FOPL that uses five coordinated colors and letters to rate the healthfulness of packaged food based on its fat, sugar, salt, and calorie content per 100 grams or milliliters. A “Green A” indicates the healthiest option, while a “Red E” denotes the least healthy.

Nutrinform Battery is a non-directive system that displays numerical information based on recommended portion sizes.

Using battery-shaped icons, it shows the percentage of daily reference intakes for energy, fats, saturated fats, sugars, and salt. It does not rank or color-code foods, requiring consumers to interpret the data themselves.

According to the researchers, 71 percent of Portuguese participants preferred Nutri-Score over Nutrinform Battery.

“Even among those who had initially used Nutrinform Battery, 59 percent switched their preference when shown both labels side by side,” the authors wrote.

Last year, Portugal adopted the Nutri-Score as an optional labeling system for food producers who wish to display it on their packaging.

The new findings are consistent with a 2023 study conducted on Spanish consumers and published in the same journal. Several of the authors, including Hercberg, were involved in both studies.

That earlier research found that Nutri-Score was more effective than Nutrinform Battery in enabling Spanish consumers to rank products according to nutritional quality accurately.

The authors argued that Nutrinform Battery requires “a higher cognitive workload,” which may explain why consumers preferred Nutri-Score.

According to the authors, the battery icon may be counterintuitive because it visually contradicts how people typically interpret battery symbols in everyday life.

In most digital contexts, a fully charged or highly charged battery is associated with something positive, such as full power or readiness.

However, in the Nutrinform system, a less charged battery represents a healthier food choice because it means the product contributes less to the daily intake of fat, sugar, salt or calories.

“By analogy with the electronic devices used daily by many people, graphic representations of charged batteries are more likely to be interpreted as a positive signal or a desirable state to be attained,” the authors wrote.

The research comes as Romania recently joined the list of European countries allowing voluntary adoption of Nutri-Score.

In recent years, both labeling systems have been considered by the European Commission as potential models for a unified E.U.-wide food labeling scheme.

However, a heated debate and deep divisions among member states contributed to the previous European Commission’s failure to advance the initiative. So far, the new commission has not indicated that it will move forward with a bloc-wide labeling system.

Four olive trees have been infected by the aggressive pathogen in the Barletta-Andria-Trani province, a region responsible for nearly half of Apulia’s olive oil production.

The latest infections were confirmed by the laboratories of the Institute for the Sustainable Protection of Plants, which is part of the National Research Council (CNR).

These findings are a direct result of the extensive monitoring activities carried out in the Apulian region by local institutions, researchers, and volunteers.

Since January, nearly 250 samples have been collected and analyzed in the Bisceglie area, mostly from olive trees, along with a few from other species, such as wild cherry, which are considered susceptible to Xylella fastidiosa.

The discovery of infections north of Bari triggered a nationwide alarm, coming less than three months after the most recent Xylella outbreak found in Minervino Murge, about 60 kilometers from Bisceglie.

In both cases, the subspecies “pauca” of Xylella fastidiosa was identified; the strain has already devastated southern Puglia for over a decade.

Oronzo Antonio Milillo, president of the Apulian Federation of Agronomists, told AndriaViva magazine that the alert level is currently very high due to the specific characteristics of the infection, which are still being investigated.

“The bacterium typically spreads only a few hundred meters per day, so it’s reasonable to assume that a vector may have unknowingly transported it along the road. This is a possibility we must seriously consider,” Milillo said, referring to insects that often attach to cars and can easily be transported over long distances by unsuspecting vehicles.

In a note published on the Apulian Regional Council website, regional authorities explained that all service areas along the motorways are currently being inspected.

It is believed that the insect vectors responsible for the new infections may have traveled aboard trucks stopping at these service areas.

“On the other hand, if the spread is due to a natural movement of the vector, we should already have found, or will likely find through further testing, intermediate areas of infection. That’s why the alert level is extremely high,” Milillo added.

Twelve years after Xylella fastidiosa began infecting millions of olive trees in the southern Salento area, the new findings have reignited concerns about the potential economic consequences of a renewed outbreak.

“We are talking about an area… where olive growing is the leading open-air industry, with significant numbers of jobs and household incomes tied to the sector,” said Gennaro Sicolo, president of the Apulian branch of the Italian Farmers’ Confederation (CIA).

“If strong action is not taken immediately, the situation could spiral out of control in the metropolitan area of Bari and the province of Foggia as well,” he warned.

As prescribed by European Union regulations, a 400-meter-wide area around the infected trees is currently undergoing thorough sampling of olive trees and other Xylella fastidiosa-susceptible plants.

The infected trees will be removed through procedures designed to prevent the further spread of the bacterium. A new red zone has been declared within a 50-meter radius of the trees.

Within a 2.5‑kilometer radius around the infected areas, a buffer zone has been established, marking the area as potentially affected by Xylella fastidiosa.

This designation enables special territorial surveillance and plant monitoring. 

Within the buffer zone, strict mandatory preventive actions are being implemented, primarily aimed at preventing the spread of insects that carry the bacterium from one plant to another.

Both the CIA and the olive oil producers’ association Unapol have called for a new national plan to combat Xylella fastidiosa and to allocate more funds for the recovery of olive cultivation in the affected areas, primarily through the use of Xylella fastidiosa-resistant olive cultivars.

“The four infected olive trees are all in a roadside service area near Bisceglie. Both the trees and the land they occupy were neglected for a long time,” Giuseppe di Niso, spokesperson for the Bari chapter of the farmers’ association Confagricoltura, told BisceglieViva.

“In that area, the mandatory maintenance work was not carried out as required by current regional regulations on Xylella fastidiosa prevention,” di Niso said.

He urged people not to panic but to comply more strictly with the regulations governing preventive measures.

Those measures have already been shown to significantly slow the spread of the bacterium, for which no cure currently exists.

“I can’t say that all my fellow farmers follow the guidelines against the bacterium,” Pietro Maggi, a farmer in Barletta-Andria-Trani, told Olive Oil Times. “But I can say that awareness is growing, we all know we need to stand together if we want to contain the damage at least.”

The changes, developed in collaboration with the IOC, aim to harmonize international standards and enhance olive oil quality and purity assessments, while taking into account global production and the impact of climate change. 

In a decision published in June 2025, the Council of the European Union said it will support updating the method for measuring waxes and fatty acid ethyl esters, adding a method for determining diglycerides and triglycerides; adding a footnote to adjust the total sterols limit for Koroneiki and Nocellara del Belice monovarietal oils, pending further studies; and removing the test for halogenated solvent traces.

According to the council, the proposed adjustments will ensure fair competition and align E.U. regulations with global standards. According to IOC data, the E.U. was responsible for 61 percent of international olive oil production over the past half-decade.

However, not all stakeholders are convinced. Some industry representatives argue that the new sterol composition requirements, which revise the acceptable levels of delta (7)-stigmastenol, a naturally occurring compound in olive oil, could disadvantage certain European olive-producing regions.

Producers’ primary concern is that sterol content may fluctuate due to regional climate, and some olive varieties might yield oils that fall outside the new thresholds, even if they are otherwise high-quality extra virgin. 

They are further worried that this could result in unfair disadvantages for traditional producers in affected regions, potentially impacting their ability to market their oils under certain quality classifications. Others are concerned that stricter regulations may increase compliance costs for smaller olive oil businesses.

In response to these concerns, the IOC indicated that discussions are still ongoing within relevant expert groups, and the members would examine the issues when they meet at the 121st session of the Council of Members.

“We welcome the updating by the European Union of the olive oil standard, which is the result of the close collaboration between our experts and the European authorities,” said Mercedes Fernández, the head of research and standardization at the IOC.

Beyond its significant role in production, the E.U. is also the leading exporter and consumer of olive oil. 

The 27-member bloc was responsible for 45 percent of olive oil consumption over the past half-decade. Meanwhile, E.U. countries also shipped 63 percent of global olive oil exports over the same period.

Fernández noted that the changes to the standard were agreed initially as part of the E.U.’s June 2024 decision to align its marketing standards for olive oil with those of the IOC.

“This development marks a significant step,” Fernández said. “The IOC will continue to work to ensure that its standards serve as a global reference, safeguarding product authenticity and protecting consumers.”

• Euractiv

Francesco Ricci, whose family coined the term, insists that Agrumato is a registered trademark that describes their brand and is not a production method, an adjective, or a verb. 

“It’s a proprietary and secret recipe,” Ricci told Olive Oil Times through a translator, Rolando Beramendi, an award-winning importer and the founder of Manicaretti Italian Food Importers, who sells Agrumato in the United States. “For example, you will never know what’s in Campari or Coca-Cola.”

Unsurprisingly, Ricci declined to share many details about the process, which he spent much of the 1980s tweaking and fine-tuning before releasing the first Agrumato on the market after the 1989 harvest.

Instead, Ricci insisted that only immediate family members, including his children, know the recipe, whom he hopes will continue the Agrumato legacy.

“It’s olives and lemons being crushed together and going through the same process as extra virgin olive oil,” he said, highlighting that Agrumato is made using dedicated milling equipment.

Ricci added that Gentile olives are key to Agrumato, as they are locally grown, have a mild flavor profile that does not clash with the citrus flavors, and ripen at around the same time as the citrus, allowing the company to harvest quickly and mill both fruits concurrently.

Along with lemon, the Ricci family sells Agrumato, made with orange, blood orange, bergamot orange, tangerine, citron, and lemon, along with herbs.

The secret to Agrumato’s success, which Beramendi said popularized the flavored olive oil category and has held up as the gold standard of its production, lies in the proportions.

“So everybody copied that, but imitation is the greatest form of flattery,” Beramendi said. 

Indeed, searching for the term “agrumato method” in any mainstream search engine yields pages of olive oil producer websites, many of which are from California, where Agrumato was first imported by Beramendi in 1991. These websites describe a method of co-milling freshly harvested olives with a range of fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs.

Beramendi and Ricci frequently send cease-and-desist notices for the incorrect use of the term, but this has not stopped some of the largest olive oil producers in the U.S. from publicizing “agrumato method” or “agrumato style” olive oil on their websites.

Part of the reason for the judicious protection of their intellectual property stems from the rigorous process the Ricci family had to undergo to have the product certified as extra virgin.

“When we first came out with the product and had to have it certified, I went to the University of Perugia… and had to fight quite a big battle to be certified extra virgin olive oil with lemon,” Ricci said. “The chemical analysis of the product shows it is 100 percent an extra virgin olive oil. It has aroma and a hint of flavor, but to all intents and purposes, it’s an extra virgin olive oil.”

According to the International Olive Council, any grade of olive oil, including extra virgin, is a single-ingredient food and cannot contain additives. 

“Flavored oils cannot be considered olive oils,” and they cannot be labeled as such under IOC rules, former executive director Abdellatif Ghedira told Olive Oil Times in 2018.

Ricci and Beramendi disagree, pointing to the certification from the University of Perugia, and stated that they do not engage in debate over the nomenclature of flavored olive oil. 

Instead, they point to public enthusiasm for the product as evidence that the name is just right, including awards in 2023 from the Specialty Food Association and the Fancy Food Show for the then-newly released Agrumato Bergamotto.

More broadly, Ricci explains that he believes flavored and infused olive oil are helping to bring chefs and regular consumers into the world of olive oil. Beramendi agreed, citing personal experience working with prominent chefs from leading California restaurants. 

“I see it as a product that broke the glass ceiling,” he added. “Agrumato was an important pillar of why people started to use extra virgin olive oil as a finishing oil. It was a pioneer.”

Along with the U.S., the Ricci family exports Agrumato to 17 other countries. The United Kingdom is the second-largest market, with Australia, Germany, Japan, Singapore and South Korea also representing significant markets.

Ricci estimated that Agrumato sales account for approximately 95 percent of the business, with the remaining 5 percent comprised of sales of three monovarietal extra virgin olive oils and Pan’Agrumato, a panettone made with Agrumato.

With two recent reports forecasting that the flavored olive oil market will nearly double over the next decade, rising from $1.29 (€1.19) billion in 2024 to $2.47 (€2.10) billion by 2033, Ricci and his imitators are hoping to capitalize on the category’s momentum and continue to grow market share for Agrumato and other co-milled olive oil.

The project encompasses a comprehensive series of integrated programs focused on quality, sustainability, and resilience.

“Our goal is to obtain a high-quality agricultural product that is completely free from pesticide residues,” Maram Al Masadeh told Olive Oil Times.

Al Masadeh is the director of the Plant Protection and Phytosanitary Directorate (NPPO Jordan) and Jordan’s official liaison to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s International Plant Protection Convention (IPPC).

“We are achieving this through strategic monitoring, advanced pest control techniques, and by promoting good agricultural practices across the country,” she added.

The project was launched with the participation of several stakeholders, including the Jordan Agricultural Engineers Association, the General Union of Jordanian Farmers, the Jordanian Olive Products Exporters Association and the General Syndicate of Jordanian Olive Oil Mill Owners and Olive Producers.

The campaign began with a project aimed at tackling the most pressing threats to Jordan’s olive sector; the olive fruit fly has long compromised both yields and oil quality in Jordan and around the olive oil world.

The ministry’s program includes the deployment of tens of thousands of sticky and food traps, the distribution of low-residue pesticides, and the training of hundreds of farmers and engineers in integrated pest management.

Through integrated pest management, olive growers utilize traps, natural predators, pheromones, and agronomic practices such as early harvesting. Low-residue insecticides are used only when necessary.

According to Al Masadeh, the colored and food traps, along with chemical controls, cover an estimated area of 100,000 dunams (approximately 10,000 hectares) and benefit around 5,000 farmers.

The program also features a series of training courses and field schools. So far, 13 training sessions have been completed, with an additional 19 field schools launched to improve farmers’ ability to identify and combat pests using environmentally sound methods.

“These courses help reinforce our national identity through the olive tree, while ensuring that our olive oil remains a competitive and healthy product,” Al Masadeh said.

The ministry has already distributed 46,000 yellow sticky traps, 34,000 food traps, five tons of ammonia fertilizer, 280 kilograms of Torula yeast tablets, and 630 kilograms of dough yeast. Yeast is used as a powerful attractant for the olive fruit fly.

In addition, 5,000 liters of specialized pesticides will be used in mass control operations.

“These measures are designed to limit the use of chemicals while effectively suppressing pest populations,” Al Masadeh said. “We are committed to aligning with international phytosanitary standards to ensure Jordanian olive oil remains trusted in global markets.” 

The campaign also emphasizes public awareness. Social media campaigns and official government websites are helping disseminate information directly to farmers.

“It’s vital that everyone involved in the olive sector, from growers to processors, understands the risks and how to mitigate them,” said Al Masadeh, referring to olive pests and the challenges posed by climate change.

The Ministry of Agriculture plans to continue its efforts through the end of the 2025 harvest season.

“We launched this campaign in phases, starting in February, and will carry it through the entire agricultural season,” Al Masadeh confirmed.

According to official ministry data, nearly 72 percent of the country’s fruit-bearing agricultural land is planted with olive trees.

Approximately 11 million olive trees cover about 60,000 hectares, 60 percent of which are rainfed and 40 percent irrigated.

Each year, the country produces approximately 165,000 tons of olives, yielding more 25,000 metric tons of olive oil.

According to International Olive Council data, over the last five harvests, Jordan has produced between 23,500 and 27,500 tons of olive oil annually.

Domestic olive oil consumption has remained relatively stable at around 22,000 tons per year.

Despite these numbers, Jordan has faced climate-related challenges that continue to test the sector’s resilience.

For example, the 2024/25 crop year yielded lower-than-expected results, primarily due to prolonged droughts and fluctuating temperatures.

The new campaign builds on existing projects aimed at strengthening the resilience of the country’s olive crop, including the Mahras Olive Project, which focuses on preserving and enhancing the country’s indigenous olive varieties. 

The project focuses on building a genetic resource bank, improving cultivar resilience to drought and pests, and boosting oil quality through targeted research.

Al Masadeh emphasized that the country’s olive sector represents more than just a farming sector.

“The olive tree represents a great historical, cultural, and economic heritage for Jordan,” she said. “It is linked to our civilization for thousands of years and remains a primary source of livelihood for thousands of families.”

“Our new campaign reflects the olive tree’s status as a symbol of resilience and goodness. In every sense, preserving the olive tree is preserving a part of who we are,” Al Masadeh concluded.

E.U. exports to the U.S. currently face a ten percent tariff imposed in April, which could rise to the original rate of 20 percent. U.S. President Donald J. Trump had previously threatened Europe with 50 percent tariffs if a deal was not reached. 

New data showing U.S. tariff revenue increased fourfold over the past year, with trade volumes declining by 25 percent from March 2025 to April, when the tariffs were implemented, are expected to buoy the administration’s confidence in the policy and lower the chances of a détente.

While producers from around the olive oil world have told Olive Oil Times that consumer prices are unlikely to rise before the start of the next harvest, the uncertainty of what tariffs will be when the first Northern Hemisphere olive oil is produced in October makes it impossible to plan for the future. 

Producers have not ruled out raising prices to cover the cost of the tariff or diverting products away from the U.S. to other markets.

“The problem is uncertainty, because the U.S. government has already given at least four versions of what the policy will be, and so far it has not applied any,” said Juan Vilar, the chief executive of Vilcon, a strategic consultancy in the olive oil sector. “The first thing we need is certainty before we determine what the impact will be.”

Meanwhile, the four European countries that comprise the European Free Trade Agreement – Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland – have signed a deal to remove tariffs on imports from the four South American countries that make up Mercosur, which includes Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. 

According to World Bank trade data, Switzerland imported 126 kilograms of virgin and extra virgin olive oil valued at $1,260 (€1,165) from Argentina and five kilograms of virgin and extra virgin olive oil valued at $800 (€740) from Uruguay in 2023. 

The deal is expected to remove tariffs applied to olive oil imports by Swiss authorities, ostensibly paving the way for South American exporters to compete with European producers that already enjoy free trade access to the Swiss market.

Overall, the data show the three largest EFTA members combined to import 16.9 million kilograms of virgin and extra virgin olive oil valued at $144 (€133) million in 2023. 

However, there were no olive oil exports from the Mercosur countries to Norway or Iceland, as these countries do not currently apply tariffs on virgin and extra virgin olive oil imports from Argentina and Uruguay. No trade data for Liechtenstein, the seventh smallest country in the world by population, were available for analysis.

The EFTA-Mercosur trade deal comes shortly after the E.U. and Chile signed a free trade agreement, removing tariffs on Chilean olive oil imports. Meanwhile, the E.U. and Mercosur trade deal awaits ratification by E.U. capitals.

The raft of trade deals paves the way for more exports from South America, the largest olive oil-producing region outside the Mediterranean Basin, to Europe at a time when European exporters are dealing with the uncertainty created by U.S. tariffs, with limited alternatives. 

“The United States is our biggest market,” said Manuel Norte Santo, the export manager of the Portuguese producer and exporter Est. Manual Silva Torrado. “It’s very complicated to predict what will happen. We’ve been talking with our clients, and they told us that we need to wait a few months to understand what will happen since the Trump administration is very volatile.”

• FT
• EFTA

The 37-year-old Okulu claimed his third Kırkpınar championship, having previously won in 2015 and 2018, after dominating the 20-minute final in Edirne, a small city 200 kilometers west of Istanbul.

Okulu came into the tournament as an overwhelming favorite, going so far as to tell local media ahead of the event: “This year, I’m in the same shape I was when I won the belt. Others may have a weight advantage, but at Kırkpınar, endurance is everything.”

After several stops and starts in the opening minutes of the final, with medical staff coming onto the field to treat Okulu’s lacerated eyebrow twice, the match returned to action with various hand-to-hand exchanges.

Overall, the experienced Okulu dominated the final with his offensive style of play, coming close to catching his 26-year-old opponent in the 16th minute before knocking Aktürk, who maintained a defensive disposition throughout, off his feet and onto his back in the 19th minute. 

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On his route to the final, Okulu triumphed over Seçkin Duman and 2022 champion Cengizhan Şimşek in the first rounds before defeating Erkan Taş in the quarter-finals and Enes Doğan in the semifinals.

Meanwhile, Aktürk defeated three-time champion Ali Gürbüz in the second round, İsmail Koç in the quarter-finals and Ali İhsan Batmaz in the semi-final. In the previous round, İhsan Batmaz caused the upset of the tournament, defeating two-time defending champion Yusuf Can Zeybek.

“Thank God, we became champions this year as we did in 2015 and 2018,” Okulu said in his victory speech, according to local media. “I beat European champion Feyzullah Aktürk. I thank him. We all played very tough matches.”

“I thank my wife and children who watched me on TV and supported me, my father who was with me and all the supporters,” he added. “My father started me wrestling, and I present the belt to my father. May the belt bring good luck to all people of Antalya.”

Overall, more than 3,000 unranked wrestlers competed alongside 40 ranked wrestlers, who qualified directly for the final stage, throughout the three-day event, which concluded on July 6th.

Kırkpınar is widely considered to be the world’s longest-running sporting event and was added to UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity list in 2010. 

According to legend, the wrestling competition originated in 1357 when a group of 40 Ottoman soldiers stationed near Edirne began grappling to pass the time.

After the rest had finished, the final two continued their fight into the night and were found dead the following day.

There was no winner that year, but the event has been held each July since then, except when it was canceled in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Traditionally, wrestlers of all ages, cultural backgrounds, and social classes gather in Edirne, engaging in one-on-one matches on the grassy fields until one wrestler successfully throws the other onto his back.

Despite a controversial format change that introduced ranked and unranked categories, the rules remained the same. Wrestlers are doused in olive oil and wear only a kıspet, short leather pants, while they compete.

The match starts with both wrestlers locking hands and keeping their heads close together. To win, a wrestler must pin his opponent onto his back or lift him into the air.

The olive oil makes it very difficult for the wrestlers to grip each other, forcing them to grab the pockets of their opponent’s kıspet.

Wrestlers also claim that olive oil helps reduce pain from injuries and accelerates wound healing. An estimated two tons of olive oil are used during the event.

The process of applying the olive oil follows a specific ritual. First, oil is applied to the left shoulder, chest, left arm, and cuff of one wrestler by another wrestler using his left hand.

Next, wrestlers repeat the same motion on the right side of their bodies. The final step of the ritual involves wrestlers applying oil to each other’s backs.

Olive oil is an essential part of the competition, and if a wrestler feels the need to reapply oil during a match, he may request a timeout from the referee and his opponent.

• Milliyet
• Daily Sabah

The region, known as the spur on Italy’s boot, is home to a large national park and is considered one of the most ancient areas of olive oil production in the country.

There, blending Coratina olives with the autochthonous Ogliarola Garganica cultivar, Oleificio Fratelli Vieste crafted its Aurea brand, which earned a Silver Award at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

The family-run farm and olive oil mill, founded in 1985, has 20 hectares of orchards, primarily dedicated to Ogliarola, Coratina and Leccino olive trees, but thrives on close relationships with local olive growers.

“This is our fortieth year, and many producers have been with us for a very long time,” Raffaele Vieste, co-owner of the company, told Olive Oil Times.

The mill’s activity originated from a long-standing family tradition of olive farming.

“Our model is based on synergy. We know the producers, we talk with them, and we select the best batches. This allows us to work with different oils and offer variety,” Vieste said.

“We know which olives come from each grove, how and when to harvest them, and how to process them at their best. It’s a job built on mutual knowledge,” he added.

Aurea is made from olives harvested early in October, when yields are low but the aromatic profile is more developed.

“When we harvest so early, the yield does not even reach eight percent,” Vieste said, meaning that for every 100 kilograms of olives processed, no more than eight kilograms of oil are extracted, a yield considered relatively low.

“It’s a risky, even uneconomical, choice, but that’s when Ogliarola Garganica expresses its best notes: almond, vanilla, a hint of tomato,” Vieste said. “It’s a complex yet delicate oil. People appreciate it for its balance.”

According to Vieste, in Aurea, the intense, structured oil from Coratina, a well-known Apulian cultivar, is balanced by the milder Ogliarola.

“In recent years, people tend to bring extreme olive oils to competitions, with very strong fruitiness,” Vieste said.

“We prefer to preserve the identity of our land. Ogliarola must always be there. It is our signature. Even when we use Coratina, we aim for balance, not strength for its own sake,” he added.

While the company produces a wide range of products, including extra virgin olive oil with different profiles, its focus remains on the Ogliarola Garganica cultivar.

“For us, it’s not just a variety, it’s identity. It is an olive oil that, when processed well, tells the story of this land like no other,” Vieste said.

“It has a thousand nuances. Depending on the harvest time, it can range from mild and sweet to intensely green and fruity,” he added.

In recent years, the Vieste farm, like all producers in the region, has had to contend with droughts and heat waves.

“We find ourselves harvesting at 24 ºC in November. We used to start after November 1st, when the cold weather would arrive. Now, that cold seems to have vanished,” Vieste said.

Harvesting olives under such conditions requires extra effort to maintain quality, as high temperatures affect the trees, the fruits and the harvest schedule.

“Climate is the main challenge, even more than pests. Olive trees need cold to rest. When the rhythm changes, everything changes,” Vieste said.

To adapt to the impacts of climate change, the company has adopted targeted agronomic practices.

“We’re lucky to have nearby groundwater. Emergency irrigation saves us during critical periods,” Vieste explained.

A crucial part of this adaptation is specialized pruning.

“It may seem trivial, but giving trees the right shape is fundamental. Pruning helps the tree breathe, produce better and withstand heat,” Vieste said.

“Here we have a strong tradition of pruners. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer of them. Still, some have recently started teaching the new generations,” he added.

Other practices focus on maintaining soil fertility.

“We try to keep the soil alive, with vegetation cover to retain moisture and support the roots,” Vieste said.

Sustainability is integral to the company’s vision. “We recover everything: olive pomace, olive pits, even pruning residues. We use the pomace as fertilizer, the pits as biomass. We’re planning a biogas plant powered by waste,” Vieste said.

“Some of these practices were used in the past. Today, they are becoming essential again. It’s not just an environmental choice, it’s also an economic one,” he added. “The relationship with consumers is another cornerstone. The farm offers tastings and guided tours of the world of olive oil. Vieste said that consumers are changing as their awareness about olive oil grows.”

“Today, visitors often arrive already informed. They know what to look for, and they recognize defects. Ten years ago, it wasn’t like that,” Vieste recalled. “It’s a cultural effort that’s bearing fruit,” he added.

The Vieste family can now showcase visitors the results of many years of producing high-quality olive oil.

“Authenticity cannot be improvised. It is the result of history, difficult choices, and daily work,” Vieste said. “We continue along this path, convinced that Italian extra virgin olive oil still has so much to say to the world.”

However, the fifth-generation winemakers have since expanded into extra-virgin olive oil production and gourmet food exports, maintaining a meticulous dedication to detail that helped propel the wine brand to become one of the world’s most renowned.

“Torres Import was founded in 1978 with the aim of offering the finest food products in Europe,” Magda Martí Vargas, the company’s commercial manager, told Olive Oil Times.

“At that time, it was a gourmet product distributor that, over the years, and given the quality of the estates owned by the Torres family, took the initiative to produce extra virgin olive oils and wine vinegars from our olive trees,” she added.

Torres Import produces olive oil from its grove of centenary and younger olive trees on the Purgatori estate in L’Aranyó, Lleida, about 90 kilometers northwest of Barcelona. 

Since 2017, the export branch of the family company has regularly participated in the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, earning a Gold Award at the 2025 edition for its Eterno brand, a medium-intensity Arbequina. The brand was previously awarded in 2017, 2019, 2022 and 2023.

The company has also been awarded for its Purgatori brand in 2021 and 2022, produced from 400-year-old Picudo, Rojal and Farga olives, along with Arbequina.

“For us, it is an honor and privilege to have a Gold Award in recent editions of NYIOOC,” Martí said. “In terms of prestige, people recognize the importance of the competition, and this implies that they are aware of the work and effort involved in continuing to harvest such high-quality oils.”

Catalonia is the fourth-largest olive oil-producing region in Spain, after Andalusia, Castilla-La-Mancha, and Extremadura. However, its olive harvests have been crippled in recent years due to prolonged drought. 

“In Catalonia, we experienced a prolonged drought. The 2022, 2023 and 2024 harvests have been particularly dry throughout the year,” Martí confirmed. “In 2024, a few liters of rain fell in spring, allowing for good ripening in the cooler areas of the estate. We also have a portion of the estate under irrigation.”

According to data from Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Catalan olive oil production fell to 15,233 tons in the 2024/25 crop year, down from 32,717 tons in the previous year.

“Overall, we can say that the harvest was lower than other harvests, and the mill yields were low,” Martí said. “During the harvest period, there were no rainy episodes, allowing the olives to be picked at their optimal ripeness.”

“During the 2024 harvest, the estate’s main challenge has been the accumulated drought in areas without support irrigation,” she added. “Without the spring rains, the desired quality would not have been achieved.”

Indeed, Catalan authorities recently lifted nearly all water restrictions in April as heavy spring rain raised reservoir capacity above the 60 percent threshold.

However, regional officials and Torres Import are mindful that this may be a reprieve and are preparing for a hotter and drier climate in the future.

“Water, as in other areas of the Mediterranean, is a scarce resource,” Martí said. “Climate change poses a significant challenge. Periods of drought are expected to become more frequent, as are summer heat waves. Irrigation will be essential in the future, as will the way we obtain water via storing rainwater, using recycled water and aquifers.”

Despite Spain’s Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food announcing a global goal to bolster production and sell four million metric tons of olive oil annually, Martí does not expect production to increase in Catalonia due to climatic and topographic limitations.

“Catalonia is a small olive oil-producing region compared to other regions in Spain and around the world,” she confirmed. “Its terrain, with numerous mountain ranges, makes it difficult to plant large areas of olive trees. Mechanization can be challenging, so the focus must be on producing unique, high-quality oils.”

As a result, she said Torres Import focuses on producing high-quality extra virgin olive oil, pricing their final product based on the cost of production and paying little attention to the falling olive oil prices at origin in Andalusia, the world’s largest producer by a wide margin. 

“Torres Import always emphasizes product quality; we focus on tastings and product presentation,” Martí said. “We don’t enter the price wars currently in place in the market, as we offer authenticity and quality.”

As the name suggests, a significant part of Torres Import’s business includes exports, especially to the United States. 

Martí said the company had exported the most recent harvest ahead of the implementation of a near-blanket ten percent tariff on imports to the U.S. and would wait to see how the situation changes before making any decisions ahead of the 2025/26 harvest. 

“For now, our importers purchased at the beginning of the harvest and stocked up on product,” she said. “We will see how this affects us in the future; however, we hope everything returns to normal.”

• Euro Weekly News

A landmark for Italian producers, Ercole Olivario is a national competition for the best extra virgin olive oils, organized annually by the Italian Union of Chambers of Commerce for Industry, Handicraft and Agriculture (Unioncamere), in collaboration with the Chamber of Commerce of Umbria.

During the closing event, the organizers handed out trophies consisting of miniature replicas of the temple of Hercules Olivarius, built in Rome in the 2nd century B.C., from which the name of the contest originated.

Twelve extra virgin olive oils – half of which were Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) certified – out of 116 finalists were awarded after assessments carried out by a panel of 16 experienced tasters representing the competing regions.

The panel leader Stefania D’Alessandro led the team composed of Antonietta Altieri, Giuseppe Giordano, Francesco Girardi, Antonietta Matteo, Erika Pozzetto, Stefano Roggerone, Gianfranco Pontoglio, Donatella Di Sebastiano, Paolo Di Paolo, Nunzia Floriana De Palma, Piera Bacciu, Giovanna Montalto, Franco Pasquini, Piero Damiani, Erika Betti and Stefano Scuppa.

“The quality of the extra virgin olive oils participating in this edition was extremely high,” the tasters said unanimously after the tasting sessions. 

They observed how, despite the many challenges of recent years, the Italian producers have been able to constantly improve their expertise both in the field and in the mill.

Lazio was the most awarded region with four accolades, followed by Emilia-Romagna, Abruzzo, and Sicily, each with two awards. Tuscany and Sardinia each obtained one recognition.

Another dozen special awards were presented, including a mention for the best organic extra virgin olive oil, which went to a producer from Lazio. Additionally, two producers from the same region were recognized for the best monocultivar, along with one producer from Campania and one from Puglia.

The latter region was the most awarded, with four accolades, at La Goccia d’Ercole (The Drop of Hercules), the section dedicated to small-scale producers. Puglia was followed by Umbria, with two awards. Sicily, Tuscany, Umbria, Campania and Calabria each took home one award.

Ercole Olivario has always been a showcase for the Italian producing regions. Over the last few years, oleotouristic initiatives have been put in the spotlight by the competition through the introduction of a new award, the ‘Giorgio Phellas Oleotourism Mention of Merit’, intended for companies that invest in the sector. This year’s mention went to a Sicilian company.

“We must continue to work on the territories with promotional actions to link food to tourism.”

said Andrea Prete, the president of Unioncamere, during the award ceremony. “We aim at enhancing a quality oleotourism offer, with a view to meeting the ever-growing demand.”

A distinctive feature of Ercole Olivario lies in preliminary selections. Every year, the extra virgin olive oils that participate in the national competition are selected during a first round of assessment by regional panels. 

In Lazio, this led to the creation of a regional contest for the best extra virgin olive oils, which, over time, has gained a reputation. The Premio Roma Evo, held at the Chamber of Commerce of Rome, is now in its 32nd edition.

Among the winners is Azienda Agricola Alfredo Cetrone. After earning one of the first prizes at Premio Roma Evo, it entered the national competition, where it ranked first in the category PDO/PGI Intense Fruity with its Daje Colline Pontine PDO and second in the intense fruity category with its Cetrone In.

“It is a great satisfaction to win in this prestigious contest, and especially in the PDO and PGI category, since we have a special bond with our territory and we aim at highlighting it,” co-owner Giulio Cetrone told Olive Oil Times.

His company manages 20,000 Itrana olive trees spread across 100 hectares of mainly terraced terrain at elevations of 450 to 500 meters above sea level in Sonnino, in the province of Latina.

Traditionally processed for table olives in Lazio, where it originated, this olive variety has also been widely used in recent times to create excellent extra-virgin olive oils, often characterized by herbaceous and tomato notes.

“Our family has a long tradition of olive growing, and I am the fifth generation to manage these orchards,” Cetrone said. “We used to produce table olives until my father, Alfredo, had the intuition to harvest earlier and to use Itrana to obtain a monovarietal. This choice turned out to be successful.”

“Most of our plants are centuries-old and some of them are likely a thousand years old,” he added. “Our youngest olive trees were planted to produce oils with different profiles, but also aiming at biodiversity conservation. We collected cuttings of the different ecotypes of Itrana from across the province. We therefore planted them on a flat plot to form rows, each representing a town on the Pontine Hills. This is a further way to praise and protect our beautiful territory.”

Registration is now open until September 30th for Extra Cuoca, a contest dedicated to professional women chefs working in Italy and other countries. Ercole Olivario will award the best recipes created with the winning extra virgin olive oils.

More information on Extra Cuoca and a complete list of 2025 Ercole Olivario winners, including those from the table olive competition, can be found on the organization’s website and social media pages.

Carroccia Campodimele is situated on the hills near Campodimele, approximately 130 kilometers south of Rome, on the edge of the Aurunci Mountains Natural Park. 

Approximately 3,700 Itrana olive trees are planted on terraces bordered by dry stone walls. The celebrated olive variety is easily identifiable across the region’s groves.

“We just received authorization to reinforce and expand the dry walls. Now we can more easily access about 90 percent of our groves,” Paolo De Filippis, an olive oil taster, co-owner, and manager of the family-run company, told Olive Oil Times.

De Filippis and his cousin charted a new path for Carroccia Campodimele nearly 20 years ago, focusing on quality and expanding from three to ten hectares.

Their producing experience pairs family history with a unique feature of the Campodimele village.

The small town with slightly more than 550 residents is known for its extraordinary demographic trait: it is one of the longest-lived communities in Italy.

Often referred to as the “village of longevity,” Campodimele has been the focus of numerous scientific studies examining the high number of centenarians within its small population.

Researchers have linked this longevity to a combination of genetics, physical activity associated with rural life, low stress, and a traditional Mediterranean diet rich in vegetables, legumes, and olive oil.

For the Carroccia family, whose groves are situated in the surrounding area, this connection between land, lifestyle, and health is woven into their identity.

The extra virgin olive oil’s label features a top-view image of Campodimele, anchoring their oil to values of wellness and natural living.

“Itrana is so special, and our parents knew that. They planted only that cultivar so long ago,” De Filippis said. “Itrana can make a perfect olive oil, with its unique and balanced aroma, but it’s also ideal as a table olive.”

Gaeta olives, a specialty from southern Lazio, are grown on Itrana trees and carry a Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) certification, ensuring quality and authenticity, as recognized by the European Union.

Itrana’s olive oil, on the other hand, represents the central portion of the Colline Pontine olive oil, which is also a celebrated PDO.

According to De Filippis, the whole family is involved in the farm’s activities, sharing a deep emotional bond with their land and the Itrana olive.

“We are in love with this cultivar,” he said. “When you taste an Itrana-quality extra virgin olive oil, the first thing you notice is its aroma, a very fragrant olive oil that conquers the palate and the soul.”

According to De Filippis, their olive oils have a high phenolic content, approaching 900 milligrams per liter.

“It has a balanced profile, a noticeable but harmonious bitterness, and an interesting spiciness,” he explained, noting a resemblance to the well-known Sicilian Tonda Iblea cultivar.

The family harvests early in the season.

“We aim for quality. During harvest, you’ll only see electric tools in the fields,” De Filippis highlighted, referring to concerns about contamination from petrol engines.

“We love everything green. The farm has been organic from the start. We don’t even know what chemicals are,” he said.

De Filippis explained that they avoid pesticides and prioritize natural treatments focused on sustainability and soil health. For fertilization, he described a composting system using manure and olive pruning remains.

“We let it sit in a dedicated spot for a year to mature, then apply it to the trees, in the shade of their canopy,” he said.

Though already certified organic, the Carroccia farm is now transitioning to biodynamic farming, part of a growing trend across Italy.

The biodynamic approach stems from the teachings of Rudolf Steiner, a controversial social reformer and founder of anthroposophy, which integrates spiritual awareness into life, teaching and agriculture.

“You have to believe in it, really believe it mentally. And you also have to accept lower yields and reduced profits. But it means producing better and more sustainably,” De Filippis said.

While the farm does not have its mill, De Filippis uses a local facility dedicated to a few organic producers. “If the goal is quality, you cannot mix your olives with those of uncertain origin,” he said.

Carroccia Campodimele’s quality was confirmed once again, with a Gold Award for its organic medium-intensity Itrana monovarietal at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

For De Filippis, the company’s fourth NYIOOC accolade in as many years is more than a recognition of quality.

“First of all, it’s very rewarding,” he said. “I’m the one who tastes our olive oils, and when the oil I selected wins a Gold Award, I’m very proud of our work.”

Still, these are challenging times for olive growers across the Mediterranean, including those in Lazio.

“We are living through climate change. It’s fast, and we are all a bit unprepared for what’s happening,” he explained.

They are considering irrigation, although the hilly terrain poses a challenge.

“We’re working on it, monitoring the trees day by day. The trees’ resting period used to be longer, and that may affect production,” he said, hinting at the increasingly short winters experienced by Lazio growers.

The farm relies on the reinforced dry walls to improve soil and water retention. It is also starting a collaboration with a local agronomist to boost climate resilience.

“Today, we just had a great fruit set, then came sudden heat, stressing the trees. And then yesterday we were hit by a hailstorm, with hail as big as walnuts,” De Filippis said.

“Producing quality olive oil presents many challenges, and they vary from farm to farm,” he added. “But the one challenge we all face is climate change. It demands inventiveness and long-term investment. We must be proactive.” 

On the foothills of Mount Guardiabella, an offshoot of the Prealps, Tèra de Prie cultivates 4,500 trees scattered over 15 hectares of terraced orchards at 300 to 400 meters of altitude. 

The groves are located throughout the hamlets of Aurigo, Borgomaro and a few other villages of the Impero Valley, near Imperia.

“This area has always been rich in stones and trees,” co-owner Nicola Ferrarese told Olive Oil Times. “The first peoples who arrived here, the Ligurians and then the Romans, started using the tree wood to build their boats and collected the stones to create the terraces, turning a problem into a resource.”

Hence, the name of the company, Tèra de Prie, which in the Ligurian language means ‘land of stones’ or ‘land made of stones.’ The company logo depicts a stylized human figure wielding a magaglio, a local word indicating a type of three-toothed hoe. It can be seen as a farmer hoeing, gearing up for the olive harvest or struggling to fix a retaining wall.

The latter image evokes the constant maintenance required by the terraced plots, whose slope gradient is at least 45 degrees. Every year, the company restores between 180 and 200 square meters of dry stone walls on the property.

The result of this commitment towards the territory, shaped by a thousand years of heroic farming, is Tèra de Prie Biologico Monocultivar Taggiasca, which earned a Gold Award at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

“Our work of preservation has not only a historical and cultural value – just consider that UNESCO recognized the art of dry stone walling as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity – but it also has other major implications,” Ferrarese said. 

“A good maintenance of the dry stone walls drastically reduces the hydrogeological risk,” he added. “Due to the importance of this activity, the European Union covers part of the cost necessary for their restoration. However, well-done work always requires an extra amount of expense, as well as additional efforts.”

The use of traditional agricultural techniques, such as dry-stone terraces, is widely recognized as an adaptation measure to mitigate the effects of climate change.

The E.U. manages funding programs, such as “Using Dry-Stone Walls as a Multi-purpose Climate Change Adaptation tool,” the goals of which are to restore and maintain dry stone walls in a long-term manner, as they enable excellent water drainage and effectively minimize the risk of landslides and floods.

“Among their environmental benefits, these walls provide a specific natural ecosystem for many species,” Ferrarese said. “Moreover, they act as temperature regulators, creating a microclimate, thanks to the stone’s ability to store the heat of the sun and then to release it.”

Ferrarese manages the company alongside his father, Franco, and last year, his wife, Sonia, joined the team to oversee marketing and business initiatives. The couple has two children, eight-year-old Andrea and six-year-old Francesca, who has already shown interest in the family’s commitment to olive production.

“Every year, our kids are the first tasters of our extra virgin olive oil, and they love getting involved in the harvest, which for them is an exciting experience,” Ferrarese said. “Speaking of the link between generations, most of these lands have been passed down to us from our ancestors. Both my mother’s and my father’s families were, in all likelihood, olive growers since 1700.”

The origins of their entrepreneurial venture date back to the mid-1980s, when Franco Ferrarese began revitalizing an abandoned olive grove.

“He then recovered other plots and we started making oil for household consumption,” Ferrarese said. “After purchasing some neighboring land, at the end of the 1990s, he established a small mill, and in 2000, he created a company.”

In 2011, the farm was certified organic. In 2016, Ferrarese joined his father in managing the business, and together they founded Tèra de Prie.

“We have a precious collaborator, Emad Balat, who began working with us 25 years ago, and today he is a true expert in the construction of dry stone walls. His skill is invaluable. Building this type of wall without using binding material not only takes effort but also calls for great expertise,” Ferrarese said. “Emad and I also take turns in managing the company mill, equipped with advanced Mori-Tem technology.”

“Another great collaborator, Zeka Ilmi, works in the olive groves all year, and in the summer he takes care of our vegetable garden,” he added. “This is where we source the vegetables for our hotel’s restaurant.”

The Ferrarese family manages a hotel in Diano Marina, whose catering section is supplied with extra virgin olive oil and other fresh, organic agri-food products from their farm. The hotel guests can participate in olive oil tastings and tours of the farm and mill.

“We organize events for our guests and for all those who want to visit our olive groves and the milling facility, which is regularly updated with the best technical innovations,” Ferrarese said. “We make an olive oil tasting, and I give them some information about these terraces and the history of Ligurian agriculture, trying to convey both our passion and some useful information to recognize a good extra virgin olive oil.”

The company’s pursuit of quality has always been closely tied to its commitment to environmental sustainability. Before applying for organic certification, the Ferrarese family began focusing on organic methods of production.

“We minimize tillage and let the spontaneous herbs grow on our terraces to improve biodiversity and attract beneficial insects,” Ferrarese said.

“We mow grass just once a year before harvesting, and actually, I can say that the wild boars help us practice green manure, as they loosen up the soil under the trees while in search of food,” he added. “Indeed, our olive groves are rich in wildlife, and we aim to preserve this healthy environment.”

Most of the plots face southwest, offering excellent exposure to the sun that benefits the Taggiasca olive trees. The orchards also include a few dozen trees belonging to yet unknown varieties, which ancient farmers used to improve pollination. The company is currently studying them in collaboration with a university research group.

The average width of a terrace is approximately three meters, but in some cases, it can be as little as two meters. As a result, each terrace typically contains one row of olive trees, while only a handful have sufficient space for two rows. For optimal use of space, due to logistical and safety reasons, the company conducts regular and meticulous pruning of its olive trees.

“The activities on these orchards can often be strenuous, and especially for this, our collaborators deserve to work in a serene and pleasant environment,” Ferrarese said. “I believe that the respect for the land cannot be separated from the respect for and enhancement of people who work and live in it.”

“Every time we hire someone, even just for a season, the first oil that comes out of the mill goes to them, because they helped us create something unique like a high-quality extra virgin olive oil,” he added. 

“True quality is not an end in itself, but aims at everyone’s well-being. It seeks the common good and acts in the best interest of the entire community. This is what we strive to do, and it is reflected in the care with which we protect this fascinating territory.”

The Romanian government announced the adoption of Nutri-Score after concluding a public consultation on the new rules for introducing the FOPL.

The decision brings an end to years of uncertainty about the country’s position on Nutri-Score adoption.

Nutri-Score is a traffic-light-style food label that uses a combination of five coordinated colors and letters to rate the healthiness of a packaged food item based on its fat, sugar, salt, and calorie content per 100-gram or milliliter serving. A “Green A” indicates the healthiest option, while a “Red E” denotes the least healthy.

All Nutri-Score adopters in Romania will act voluntarily. Still, as in other countries adopting Nutri-Score, Romanian regulations require producers who choose to use Nutri-Score on one product to apply it to all products under the same brand within 24 to 36 months, depending on the number of products.

Romanian food producers and retailers will be required to follow the procedures and rules established by Santé Publique France (the French National Public Health Agency), including graphic standards and usage protocols.

Operators who fail to comply with the rules (e.g., providing incorrect nutritional data, misusing the logo) may have their rights revoked, face audits or be subject to sanctions or legal action.

The rules harmonize the use of Nutri-Score across all adopting countries. Alongside France and now Romania, the list includes Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain and Portugal.

According to the international food product database Open Food Facts, which contributed to the design of the Nutri-Score label, the FOPL now appears in thousands of supermarkets and retail chains.

In countries where Nutri-Score has not been officially adopted—such as Slovenia, Austria, and Ukraine—some producers and retailers have voluntarily begun displaying it on part or all of their food packaging.

While the number of adopting countries continues to grow, Nutri-Score remains controversial in several parts of Europe.

Government and institutional officials in Italy, Greece, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Latvia have repeatedly opposed Nutri-Score.

Despite significant differences in how their concerns are expressed, these countries share the belief that Nutri-Score parameters penalize local food specialties or products widely recognized as healthy when consumed in appropriate portions.

Olive oil has long been at the center of the heated European FOPL debate.

While the latest update to the Nutri-Score algorithm raised all grades of olive oil to a “Light-green B,” Nutri-Score founder Serge Hercberg has clarified that olive oil will never receive the highest rating due to its total fat content.

As a result of this debate, Spain has introduced Nutri-Score, and at the same time, it has exempted olive oil producers and distributors from labeling their packaging with the FOPL.

After Nutri-Score was updated, several large food producers began distancing themselves from the logo, starting with the French-based food corporation Danone. More recently, the Swiss giant Nestlé also announced its intention to drop the label from some products in Switzerland.

For a few years, Nutri-Score has been the front-runner of an expected decision by the European Commission on the introduction of a mandatory FOPL across the European Union. The process was stalled in Brussels as the issue was dropped as a legislative priority.

The new European Commission, which formed last autumn, showed no intention to pursue a harmonized FOPL.

The new Romanian decision will become effective 60 days after its publication in the country’s official gazette.

“With an accomplished record of brand development and operational excellence, Giacomo Campinoti is a natural choice to serve as CEO and lead Filippo Berio USA into a new era of innovation and expansion,” said Salov Group chief executive Gianmarco Laviola. 

“The U.S. is a key market for Filippo Berio, and we are certain that Giacomo will sustain the storied brand’s legacy while creating compelling new growth opportunities,” he added.

Campinoti, a certified public accountant, previously served in management and executive roles at several food industry and luxury brands, including nearly 11 non-consecutive years as the chief financial officer and later as the chief executive of De Cecco USA, which produces and imports Italian extra virgin olive oil, pasta and pasta sauces. 

Before that, he worked as the director of finance and accounting for Italian coffee giant Lavazza and as the financial reporting budget manager at fashion house Benetton USA.

Now, the Florence native will be expected to expand Filippo Berio’s market share in the world’s second-largest olive oil-consuming country and brand awareness through strategic partnerships and consumer education.

Immediately, Campinoti will face uncertainty around the imposition of a ten percent tariff by the United States on imports from nearly every country, including olive oil from the European Union.

Marco De Feo, the vice president of marketing at Filippo Berio USA, told Olive Oil Times in a March 2025 interview that the company has a responsibility to lobby the U.S. government for exemptions for olive oil, emphasizing how the product aligns with the “Make America Healthy Again” policy.

“The main point is that there is not enough oil locally to supply the demand,” De Feo said. “Hopefully, the government will understand and allow olive oil to come in without major tariffs disrupting the entire supply chain.”

“If the tariffs do not last for too long, prices are unlikely to rise,” he added. “If they last longer, that will create some disruption.”

Another challenge facing Campinoti will be to increase household penetration in the olive oil category, which currently stands at about 50 percent.

“We saw household penetration spike during the Covid-19 pandemic, when people were cooking at home much more, and that helped increase olive oil consumption,” De Feo said. “Due to the supply chain issues that we experienced during the last two years, household penetration has fallen to pre-Covid levels.”

“It’s unfortunate, but that shows there is potential to grow the category,” he added. “We might never reach 90 percent, but even reaching 60 or 65 percent would be a huge increase, considering per capita consumption is still less than one liter.” 

Campinotini is also expected to be tasked with increasing sales outside of the northeastern U.S., which accounts for approximately 30 percent of the market share. 

Expansion efforts will include taking on companies such as Costco and Walmart, the latter of which dominates olive oil sales in the southeastern U.S.

De Feo has identified Asian American consumers as a diverse and promising demographic for achieving this goal.

“When we look at Asian populations and consumers here in the U.S., we see a culture that embraces the melting pot and fusion culture of trying different foods and cuisines,” he said.

“A lot of Asian Americans who now understand olive oil health benefits are one of the major new consumer groups entering the category, and they tend to select within the olive oil category, the more mild and delicate flavor profiles,” De Feo added. “Instead of a robust extra virgin olive oil, they may prefer refined olive oil or extra light olive oil.”

Despite the challenges ahead, Campinoti said he looked forward to taking the reins at the 158-year-old company.

“Time and again, the U.S. market has demonstrated a healthy appetite for high-quality, evolving culinary experiences,” he said. “I look forward to leading the iconic brand in the U.S. and sharing its continued innovation with an ever-wider audience.”

Tunisian, Moroccan and Egyptian producers showcased the results of their resilience and adaptation to labor shortages, high temperatures and insufficient rainfall at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

Considering the low harvest of the previous season, Tunisian olive oil production rebounded in the 2024/25 crop year.

Local institutions anticipate that by the end of the season, the country will export up to 300,000 tons of olive oil, most of which is shipped in bulk, with a significant share destined for the European Union. 

However, Tunisian producers showcased that the country is also home to award-winning quality, earning 12 awards from 18 entries at the 2025 NYIOOC.

Producers in neighboring Morocco and Egypt also had to cope with complex conditions, primarily due to the impact of reduced rainfall.

Two Moroccan producers combined to win a Gold and Silver Award at the 2025 NYIOOC, with Egyptian producer Wadi Food earning two Silver Awards. 

“Our olive season in Tunisia is truly at the mercy of climate change these days,” said Naouel Bouabid, owner at Massiva, which earned three Silver Awards for its flagship Damya line of olive oil. “We’re seeing more and more unpredictable weather.”

Bouabid cited the out-of-season heatwaves and erratic rainfall as examples. “All of this makes farming a continuous effort of adaptation,” she noted.

“Adding to that, the prickly pears – vital for our biodiversity and even olive oil quality – are under severe attack.” 

“The cochineal insect has caused damage, costing us a huge part of our natural heritage,” Bouabid added. “Thankfully, the government and international partners are actively seeking solutions.”

In Tunisia, prickly pears support olive farming by stabilizing soil, conserving water and serving as windbreaks. 

Their resilience in arid climates reduces erosion and wildfire risk. By diversifying income and enhancing biodiversity, they help create a more sustainable, climate-adaptive environment for high-quality olive oil production.

Despite these challenges, Bouabid said that the unique terroir, harvesting approach, and practices as well as the milling technologies, contributed to Massiva’s triumph in New York.

“We also maintain meticulous attention to detail in the cultivation of our olive trees, employing sustainable practices to ensure their health and longevity,” she added.

According to Bouabid, “winning an award at a prestigious competition like NYIOOC is an incredible feeling.”

“It’s a powerful validation of all the hard work, dedication, and passion we pour into every step of the olive oil making process, from nurturing the trees to the careful extraction and storage. It’s a moment of immense pride for our entire team,” she said.

Winning in New York is also relevant for the company as it focuses on exports to the United States.

“Effectively marketing our unique, high-quality Tunisian olive oil in the U.S. is a major challenge,” Bouabid said. “We compete with larger, established global brands with greater marketing power, requiring significant effort and investment in branding, origin and nationwide outreach.”

Other high-end producers in the country agree with Bouabid, as many challenges had to be faced.

“We had a pack of challenges, ranging from workers’ availability and management to a very hot weather during summer,” said Ahmed Hamza, co-founder and managing director of Olyfo. “In some days it exceeded 48 ºC.” 

Olyfo won a Silver Award at the World Competition for its 2500 Years of Tradition brand, a medium-intensity blend of Koroneiki, Arbequina, Arbosana and Chemlali olives.

According to Hamza, winning in New York fills him with pride and satisfaction. “It feels like our work is appreciated; it is an important recognition of the quality of the extra virgin olive oil we are selling to the world,” he noted.

In Morocco, the persistent drought and water scarcity have impacted the country’s production. Both high-end producers and other farms experienced challenges.

“We experienced a reduced harvest due to adverse weather conditions. The lack of rain in

Morocco was a disaster,” said Mohammed Dakir Berrada, founder and owner of Noor Fès in Morocco, and Ghizlane Tazi, general manager of the company.

Noor Fès earned a Gold Award at the 2025 NYIOOC with its monovarietal Moroccan Picholine.

“Climate change is now a global issue, and it is increasingly affecting olive production,” they said. “Climate change is reshaping our environment, but it also pushes us to do better.”

“Our olive oil, produced with regenerative and biodiverse systems, not only tastes better and offers more nutritional benefits, but it’s also part of a sustainable future,” Berrada and Tazi added.

The two noted that the award won by the company is the result of several sustainable practices, technologies and innovative procedures.

“This is our fifth consecutive award, which reinforces the consistency and excellence of our quality year after year,” Barrada and Tazi said.

“Furthermore, we are very committed to the U.S. market, which is a top priority for us,” they added. “Winning an award at the NYIOOC is helpful as it reassures U.S. consumers,”