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The Price Of Extra Virgin Olive Oil: What Is The Right One?
Extra virgin olive oil is the king’s food in the Mediterranean diet. The latter, intangible heritage of humanity, is recognised as the healthiest for proper human nutrition by ensuring a supply of nutrients fundamental to the well-being of our organism. This style of food as well as life is increasingly appreciated and used all over the world and consequently “made in Italy” food and dishes, that constitute it, are in great demand, especially extra virgin olive oil. And here a world opens up: which one to buy, where to buy it and, above all, at what price.
Where to buy
Obviously, the large distribution is a master; we can find the most important brands of multinational companies there, which offer “Italian” oils, but they are actually very little Italian, and prices, for the very logic of market competition, are often below the cost of production of an extra virgin olive oil, that can be called so. Why? Might the product be not really all Italian? This is a legitimate question, because all the Italian production does not meet the domestic needs; therefore, the oil must come from somewhere. And, which kind of oil is it? Which olive have been used and what method has it been produced by? Here comes the second question.
Which one to buy
As the majority of the Italian agricultural products, our olives also enjoy a typical Italian privilege: biodiversity. Each region produces different types of the same product. A typical example we have experienced and culturally acquired is wine. The production of wine and the different kinds of grapes from which it is obtained, in addition to the typical local climate, have made it a product that dominates international markets. A number of magazines, tv programmes and even cooking and sommelier courses have made known and appreciated the quality of Italian wine in its different variations. Prices vary depending on typology, aging, and refinement methods in more or less valuable wooden barrels. Now, we are no longer afraid of a bottle of wine which can cost more than 100/200 or 300€ and, when we go to a restaurant or if some friends invite us to a dinner and we want to drink a good wine, we are no longer surprised to pay 20/25€ for a bottle.
Oil has the same characteristics but it lacks of knowledge and oil culture is little widespread. The different cultivars, the different territories with their microclimate, the harvesting and extraction methods make it a valuable product with its own different characteristics, tastes and uses depending on the dish. In its raw use or for cooking we can choose the extra virgin olive oil that best suits our taste among the different varieties of Italian production. Even the price, as for wine, varies. So, which one to buy?
The Price
Let’s make some observation:
· The yield of the harvest varies from 10% to 20%. This means that for every 100 kg of olives, from 10 to 20 litres of oil are obtained.
· One plant produces from 30 to 60 kg of olives.
· The collection, even if done with modern equipment, is still manual and must be done in a limited period of time.
· The milling must take place within 12/24 hours from the harvest and this reduces the production period.
· The farms are usually small, family-run and do not have access to international markets where they could place their product at a higher price.
· Within the price it must be also considered the proper remuneration for the job, carried out mainly by hand, in order to avoid speculations and exploitation of manual work.
These are some of the factors that make up the final sale price and it becomes difficult to think that you can have a good quality extra virgin olive oil at 3/6€ per bottle, as in supermarkets. Nowadays, a reasonable price, respectful of everyone’s work, cannot be less than 10/12€ per bottle.
Even in this case, as for wine, there are excellences that have particular qualities with lower yields and more refined or even organic manufacturing processes, which pay attention to the use of energy completely deriving from renewable sources. It is quite clear that prices rise because we are facing with products that delight our palate and, above all, have special organoleptic characteristics which are good for our health. After all, we are what we eat and also Hippocrates, father of medicine, said: “Make your food your medicine…”.
One last observation: why are we willing to pay, as said before, 20/25€ for a bottle of wine we drink in about an hour, which is the average duration of a meal, while we want to pay less than its fair price for a bottle of good oil, which takes at least a week to consume, or even longer? Posterity will judge…