ITC Says Lack of Standards on Imported Olive Oil Hurting U.S. Producers
Current standards for extra virgin olive oil are widely unenforced and allow a wide range of olive oil qualities to be marketed as extra virgin, weakening the competitiveness of high-quality U.S.-produced olive oil, said an August International Trade Commission report released Sept. 12 (here). It also said many U.S. consumers are unable to distinguish quality differences, so they "gravitate toward less costly oils, giving an advantage to large bottlers that sell low-cost imported product." Last year, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich., asked the agency to look at the industry (see 12092633).
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"Current international standards for extra virgin olive oil allow a wide range of oil qualities to be marketed as extra virgin," the report said. "In addition, the standards are widely unenforced. ... Broad and unforced standards lead to adulterated and mislabeled products, weakening the competitiveness of high-quality producers, such as those in the United States, who try to differentiate their product based on quality."
It said the U.S., Australia, Argentina, and Chile, have emerged as both producers and consumers of olive oil, but countries in the European Union and North Africa still dominate global production, consumption, and trade. The largest trade flows were Spanish exports of olive oil to Italy, where large multinational companies source oil from around the world, blend and bottle it, and then re-export the final product to third-country markets, including the U.S., the report said.
"The bottom line is clear: widespread olive oil fraud and mislabeling plus trade protections and enormous subsidies enjoyed by European producers add up to one giant hurdle for U.S. olive oil producers," said the American Olive Oil Producers Association in a press release (here). It said multi-billion dollar annual government subsidies "make up as much as half the annual income of some European producers." Spanish producers alone receive subsidies in excess of $1 billion per year, it said.