The mission of Onaoo- the National organisation of olive oil tasters, as explained by president Lucio Carli, ceo of Fratelli Carli company, is to “teach the taste of olive oil so that everyone knows how to make the best possible use of their skills in taste evaluation of the product and can thus personally become the best evaluator of the quality of an olive oil”. Therefore, Onaoo has built up the world’s first olive oil tasting school, led by by Lucio Carli. This School of Taste runs courses in Imperia, online and in other countries, including the United States, South Africa, Japan, Taiwan, Turkey, Tunisia and Morocco.
The global scenario is now a major hub for the organisation, not just because there are so many countries that grow olives, but also due to increasing curiosity about olive oil. Lucio Carli said that companies can play a key role in assessing the final product, but also throughout the production chain process. Experts from companies could learn how identifies any “defects in the oil” that can occur before or after the olives are processed. In this way, producers can intervene, going back to the origin of the defect and safeguarding future crops. In a country such as Italy, which has the highest number of cultivars and an infinite number of organoleptic profiles, Onaoo is maintaining its commitment to the defence of the quality of the product by disseminating knowledge in the foreign countries.
The olive oil, labelled as ‘packaged in Italy’, is widely sold to areas including northern Europe and the Us. Italy, which is the world’s second-largest exporter and largest consumer of the product, has historically been a net importer of olive oil, buying the commodity from other producers in the Mediterranean region for domestic consumption and export.
Prices of the high quality olive oil produced in Italy have surged after last year’s bacteria outbreak that infected at least a million trees in the southern part of the country. The epicentre of the crisis is Bari in Puglia, which produces the ‘coratina’ olive — a special variety known for its strong taste and used for blending to give body and flavour to other extra virgin olive oils. And this time Prices for extra virgin olive oil produced in Italy are about 65% higher than those for Spanish extra virgin olive oil, according to Mintec, the commodity data group. “Normally, extra virgin olive oil from Bari trades at a premium of about 25 per cent to that of Jaén, Spain’s biggest production region in Andalucia”, says Vito Martielli, analyst at Rabobank, the Netherlands based lender.
During 2015, output in Spain, by far the largest producer, more than halved due to the exceptionally dry and hot weather, while Italy’s olive groves suffered from excessive rains as well as a fruit fly infestation. As a result, global production for the 2014-15 crop year is projected to fall 27% to 2,4 million tonnes from the previous year, according to the International Olive Council.