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Dozens of boats carrying farmers registered with Italy’s national direct farmers’ union, Coldiretti, surrounded a ship loaded with Tunisian olive oil as it arrived at the port of Civitavecchia in Lazio, according to Il Post.
The union organized the protest against olive oil imports from Tunisia, which farmers say could reduce the value of the Italian market.
The price of one liter of Tunisian olive oil is around €5, while a liter produced in Italy costs just over €9.
These protests are not new. For at least ten years, Coldiretti has accused the European Union of failing to protect farmers from imported products, even though the Italian market itself cannot do without them.
According to Coldiretti, importing oil from Tunisia fuels speculation and unfair competition because much of the oil imported from abroad is later used to produce olive oil labeled as Italian, making it misleading.
The association says producers who make olive oil from Italian olives risk being pushed out of the market because their prices are much higher.
It argues that buyers of foreign oil aim to achieve increasingly higher profit margins through speculation that pressures national producers and floods markets with lower-quality products.
The association says this also increases the risk of fraud against consumers.
The Italian organization mainly criticizes the European Union because imports from Tunisia are favored under an agreement first signed in 2016 and redefined in 2019 as part of international cooperation projects.
The agreement allows European countries to import 56,700 tonnes of extra virgin olive oil each year free of customs duties.
Farmers, however, claim that Tunisia has less strict rules on pesticide use and less stringent standards for worker safety.
In recent years, Coldiretti has unsuccessfully called for at least revising the period during which the agreement applies, limiting it to April 1 to September 30 instead of the full year.
This would prevent Tunisian oil imports during the months when new Italian oil is sold — the first extra virgin oil obtained from the first olives of the new harvest.
Tunisia is not the only country from which Italy imports olive oil.
According to data from the Divulga Study Center, Italy imports 105,000 tonnes annually from Spain, 49,000 tonnes from Tunisia, 32,000 tonnes from Greece, and 21,000 tonnes from Portugal, followed by Turkey, Chile, and Argentina.
Last year, Italy imported a total of around 223,000 tonnes of olive oil, less than in previous years when imports were much higher.
In practice, buying from abroad is necessary; otherwise, the market would not hold.
Italy produces around 230,000 tonnes of olive oil annually, but consumes between 400,000 and 450,000 tonnes, part of which comes from reserves from previous years.
In short, Italian production would not be enough to meet domestic consumption, let alone support Italian producers’ business abroad.
Italian oil is mainly sold in the United States, Japan, Canada, and European Union countries.
Most exports to Europe are not taxed, and therefore a company that bottles olive oil in Italy using oil imported from Tunisia may avoid customs duties or benefit from a very favorable tax system if the product is intended for export.
In this context, Coldiretti asked the Ministry of Agriculture last December to establish a system for tracing the origin and processing of olive oil across all EU countries to prevent fraud.
In recent years, Tunisia has managed to significantly increase olive oil production.
This year, production is expected to reach 325,000 tonnes, up 62.5% from 200,000 tonnes last year.
The increase in output has had a significant impact on prices, which have fallen by around 35% to about €4.93 per liter.
By contrast, Italian production is expected to decline this year because of drought and high temperatures that particularly affected southern regions last summer.
Oil production in the early months of 2025 depends on the 2024 harvest.