Italy's olive mills call for a state of emergency
Stocks are up 46% and prices have nearly halved, so growers in Puglia and Calabria are asking Rome for emergency status, days after Spain tried its own fix.
Olive mills in Puglia and Calabria, which together produce about 70% of Italy's olive oil, have asked the agriculture ministry to declare a state of emergency as stocks pile up and prices collapse.
Stocks of unsold oil from the previous harvest stood at 258.5 million litres on 30 June, up 46% on a year earlier, according to data from Italy's anti-fraud agency ICQRF. Coldiretti Puglia estimates this year's harvest will fall between 20% and more than 40% depending on the area, with the steepest declines around Foggia and Taranto.
About 2,000 growers marched through Bari on 12 October to demand a state of emergency and an extraordinary fund to cover fuel, energy, irrigation and loan costs. Puglia's regional government has since allocated €30 million, split between €10 million for fuel costs and €20 million for sectors in crisis, olive oil among the first in line; Coldiretti Puglia calls it only a first step toward the declaration growers are after.
A record glut next door is cold comfort for growers watching their own harvest halve in value.
Italian olive oil prices have nearly halved
The national average price for extra virgin olive oil was around €4 to €4.20 a kilo in early November, according to the analytics firm Areté, down from about €9.20 a kilo a year earlier, a fall of close to 47%. Unaprol, the producers' association chaired by Tommaso Loiodice, says growers need at least €7 a kilo to cover costs, and wants tighter limits on preferential imports from countries including Tunisia.
The glut followed one of Spain's largest harvests in years: Madrid's forecast of 1.6 million tonnes for 2026/27, up 23% on the previous season, led the Spanish government this month to order mills to withhold 12% of production, some 188,000 tonnes, keeping it off the market until September 2027.
Why Spain's fix won't rescue Italy
Analysts quoted in the Italian press say Spain's move should slow further price falls across the European market but will not reverse them automatically, since olive oil loses quality in storage and much of the existing stock already sits with bottlers and distributors. Retail prices, in other words, depend on contracts and promotions as much as on what growers are paid.
Italy has not said whether it will follow Spain's lead with a storage order of its own. It is a rough autumn to reconcile: the same week mills asked Rome for emergency help, a single white truffle from Alba sold for €100,000 at a charity auction on the other side of the country.
