ITALY SELLS NATIVE OLIVE OIL; IMPORTS FOREIGN FOR HOME

Shannon News, 2 November 1928, Page 2

ITALY SELLS NATIVE OLIVE OIL; IMPORTS FOREIGN FOR HOME

Extraction of Oil Carried on in Brills Equipped. Witl* % Latest Machinery *i HOME. The Mediterranean countries may be said to have a natural monopoly of the ' olive, aird of these the two largest producers of olive oil are Spain and Italy. > The economic importance of the olive to Italy may bo judged from the fact that the annual value .of its oil and bv-products Was estimated in the years 1923-2(5 Vit about 2,000.000,000 lire. The olive has been cultivated from remote antiquity in Italy. To-day a , little over one-fifth of the farm lands of the- country ' are .planted to this valuable tree. Statistics show that in ,1926, 579,200 hectares were devoted > exclusively to its cultivation, while the olive was grown in union with: other > crops on a further area of 1,714,000 hectares, the yield in oil from which i is approximately equivalent to that obtained from 570,000 hectares planted to olives alone. ■ f > j The most ' important olive-growing districts of the Italian Peninsula are those of Apulia, Calabria, Sicily, Tus- ( cany and Liguria. While oil of the very finest quality is produced in the -two last mentioned provinces, the south predominates for quality, as' 1 is shown by the fact that 75 per cent, of Italian olive< oil comes from the southern provinces and the islands; 20 per cent, from central, Italy, ami only a little over 4.5 per cent.-from the north- . ern section. Indeed, in some parts of the south, more especially in Apulia, 1 the olive us the staple farm crop round , which the agricultural economy of the whole province centres. The crushing of the olives and the extraction of the oil is no longer carried on. as it was even 20 years ago, as a ' farm' .industry. The old hand presses have been scrapped and oil mills' equipped with the most up-to-date machinery have been installed in large, clean, airy buildings. Oil milling and refining is now a leading Italian industry; representing a-large capital investment, and one in which socalled rationalisation has made rapid progress. The annual consumption of edible olive oil on the home market is estimated at about five liters per head, bringing the total quantity required for home consumption up to, nearly 200,000 metric tons per annum. Italian output would not, therefore, suffice to meet 'this demand and supply the large requirements of the export trade if recourse were not had to imported oils, refined in Italy, and placed on the home market, thus releasing for export the Italian olive oil needed by foreign markets, where its reliable quality and' standard types secure for it a steady ucstom. Thus in the case o ! f edible oils the same phenomenon is occurring which can be observed for other products, namely, Italian oils are largely exported, while the home requirements are met to some extent by foreign imports. The most important market ' for • Italian olive oil. is that of the United States, where the demand has grown very notably of > recent years, and is still capable of considerable development, for the use of olive oil is rapidly spreading from the foreign colonies to the general American public. In 1871 American imports of olive oil did not exceed 10,500,000 pounds, valued at £4.8,000, they'now exceed 80,000,000 pounds per annum. The characteristics of Italian olive oil vary'according to the districts whence'it.conies. Three standard qualities are on the market; extra fine, fine, aivd edible. The oil is generally of a pale yellow or golden colour and a connoisseur can easily distinguish, the light, fluid, limpid, straw-coloured oils of Liguria and' Lucca from the denser, more luscious, darker oils of Bari and Sardinia ' with their slightly nutty flavour, each excellent in their degree an'd suited "to different tastes. The flavour and odour of all these oils are. those of the olive, and they leave no oily taste in the mouth.