Made in Italy olive oil exports around the world are up by +23 percent in value despite climate change weighing on domestic production and international tensions linked to the war in Ukraine. This is according to Coldiretti's report on national heritage and consumption in Italy and the world released on the occasion of the opening of the first national exhibition of Made in Italy olive oil with dozens of bottles from all over the Peninsula.

Sixty-two percent of the value of Italian sales abroad is made in the United States, the main export area, followed by Germany, France, Japan and Canada. In the first six months of 2022, the U.S. market grew by 20 percent in value and the Canadian market by +40 percent, while in Europe, it is the Germans who are the biggest fans of Italian oil with +22 percent of purchases even though greater growth is recorded in France with +29 percent.

In the Far East, Japan scores +27 percent with a value of 52 million euros in the first half of this year. A success fueled by a heritage of biodiversity unique in the world with 533 varieties of olives cultivated from the Alps to Sicily for a total of 250 million plants from which comes the largest number of extra virgin olive oils with denomination in Europe with 42 PDO and 7 PGI in addition to dozens of zero km productions linked to the territories with a wealth of aromas and flavors that has no equal in the world. A sector that is also growing with organic that in the last 10 years has seen more than double (+110%) the areas cultivated with a strong propensity to buy organic oil in all regions of Italy but with a particular momentum of the Northeast from Trentino Alto Adige to Veneto, from Friuli Venezia Giulia to Emilia Romagna.

Italy is among the top three largest consumers of extra virgin olive oil in the world with about 480 million kilos, just behind Spain and ahead of the United States and accounting for 15 percent of world consumption. Italians use an average of 8 kilos per head of extra virgin olive oil and each family spends an average of 117 euros a year to buy olive oil, which is also the most popular food on national tables, even more than bread and pasta, used by more than 97 percent of Italians in the last year.