With a +16% increase over 2021, export sales of Apulia’s agricultural and food products reached a new record last year. This is especially thanks to the products that are staples of the Mediterranean Diet, such as wine, pasta, oil, vegetables, and fruit, which are the best-selling Apulian products abroad. This figure emerges from the analysis of the farmers’ association Coldiretti Puglia on Istat Coeweb data on foreign trade in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Italy’s F&B export sales are mainly supported by the staples of the Mediterranean Diet, such as extra virgin olive oil whose export sales increased by +30.4%. Without forgetting pasta (+37.1%), wine (+10.4%), and processed and preserved fruits and vegetables (+11.5%).
“Spreading the culture of extra virgin olive oil among tourists and consumers, as well as supporting the continuous growth of the olive oil supply chain in Italy and abroad is our goal. In fact, consumers demand information and knowledge about the world of oil”, says Coldiretti Puglia in an official statement. In Apulia, olive trees can be found on more than 370,000 hectares of cultivated land, making it possible to produce five PDO extra virgin olive oils and one PGI (Olio di Puglia). Apulian olive growing is the largest ‘green factory’ in southern Italy. In fact, it can boast 60 million olive trees (nearly 32 percent of Italy’s total and 8 percent of the EU’s), which is capable of producing extra virgin olive oil worth €1BN.