Grove Matters

Australian olive oil makers could benefit from stricter European labelling laws.

When you buy a bottle of olive oil, the rolling Tuscan hills on the label and the "Made in Italy" stamp should reassure you the product is as Italian as Chianti or Armani. In fact, there is no guarantee the oil is from Italy.

That would change under proposed laws to force manufactures to declare where their oil comes from, obliging many famous brands to reveal that most of their Italian oil is actually from places such as Spain and Tunisia.  "It's a con, pure and simple, like selling Gucci which isn't Gucci, or a Rolex which isn't a Rolex," says Massimo Gargano, head of Uraprol, the Italian olive producers association.

Italy's olive farmers have convinced the government to change the rules that allow oil to be labelled as Italian as long as it is blended it Italy even if, as is often the case it has been brought in from overseas.  Italy is both the biggest exporter and importer of olive oil, but its annual production of about 650,000 tonnes of olives is not enough to satisfy even domestic demand for the ingredient at the heart of the Mediterranean diet. Unaprol estimates that only about 20 per cent of "Italian" olive oil is from olives grown in Italy.

The new bill, issued by agriculture minister Paolo De Castro, would mean labels have to state the country in which the olives were grown and where they were pressed.

Australia's olive oil producers have welcomed the proposed changes. They have been forced to compete against each other for a slice of the high - end market because of the flood of cheap imports that purport to be from Italy. Susanna Dimiropoulos, manager of Toscana Olives, one of Australia's oldest commercial olive groves, says her family's company has been battling against cheap Italian - Style imports for decades.  "Australian consumers see 500ml can labelled ‘Italian Olive Oil' being sold for $8 in the supermarket and they think, ‘Well, it's from Italy, why should I pay twice or three times as much for a local product?" Dimiropoulos says.

"What they don't know is that 60, 70, 80 per cent of that product has come from Spain or Greece or North Africa and that it could be years old.  "We've been trying for years to change Australia's perceptions of home grown olive oil. But the labelling laws aren't as strict as they as should be. If these new laws go through it would be a boost to our industry.

Daniel Nikles, the owner of Los Olives Orchards in Mudge, says that unlike many of the cheap imports, Australian oil is "very honest and very clean".  "The vast majority of the Australian products are produced by the same people who grow the olives," Nikles says. "Our producers aren't trying to pass off blends or old oil, like some of the imports. The produced bill if it finds it breaks the principles of the EU's 27-nation single market. "Whatever they do, [the law] would have to be in line with EU rules. That means it must not prevent the sale of oil which can be lawfully sold in the other EU countries," a spokesman said.

Italian olive growers hope the new law will come into force within a year and aim to cash in on the "Made in Italy" premium in a way only big brands have been able to do so far. "If a consumer comes across a bottle which has on it Tuscan hills and cypress trees you can't' then sell Moroccan oil," Gargano says. "A consumer should be able to buy Moroccan oil, if it says Moroccan oil."

Robin Pomeroy.  Reuters, with Paul Bibby