Assitol: “Unsustainable price increases. Lighten your bills now

Also ASSITOL, the Italian Association of the oil industry, sounds the alarm of energy costs and joins the voices asking the Government to support the olive sector in the Aiuti Bis Decree. The goal, he explains Anna Cane (in the picture), president of the Association's Olive Oil Group – “is to lighten the energy bills of companies, as EU countries such as France and Spain, our competitors, are already doing. This also defends the shopping cart of the Italians, in its healthiest and most traditional component. Risking that the consumer further penalizes the purchase of olive oil means not protecting the Mediterranean diet".
“The moment is very delicate – continues Cane – the consequences of high energy prices and climate change are seriously damaging the sector. A sector that has always had low margins, which has been engaged for months in containing management costs. now, however, companies are no longer able to stop the continuous wave of increases. It is almost impossible to prevent the increases in energy and raw materials from being reflected in the final price, even if minimally. We talk a lot about sustainability, which, however, is not only environmental, but also social and economic – underlines the president of the entrepreneurs – and the oil industry must also bear heavy bills. Energy has become an unsustainable cost not only for businesses, but for the entire supply chain. In fact, olive growers and oil millers are forced to face the increase in electricity, the costs of which have increased fivefold”.
For this reason, according to Assitol, it would be appropriate, today more than ever "the repositioning of the prices of extra virgin and olive oil, redesigned thanks to close collaboration with large-scale retail trade”. Assitol also points out how the new oil campaign will be unloaded, therefore with a lower production, and will have to suffer for months of extreme weather. “The estimates – highlights the Association of the oil industry – foresee a production around 250 thousand tons of olive oil, far from the needs of the sector which, between the national market and exports, amounts to around one million tons”.