Italian Olive Oil. History and the Role of Italy in the Globalized Olive Oil Market

Seminar paper from the year 2019 in the subject World History - Modern History, grade: 1,0, University of Bologna, course: Introduction to Italian Culture, language: English, abstract: This paper gives an overview of the long history of olive oil production on the actual state territory of Italy from the first evidence in the 18. Century BC until the emphasis of the last 3 decades in the globalized olive oil market. Contemporarily, olive oil plays a quite big and still increasing role in the global trend of healthy lifestyle. The historical roots of olive oil production are located in the Mediterranean basin whose bordering states are still the biggest olive oil producers in the world. Due to the growing global consumption for olive oil, the production of olive oil augmented in every continent: Non-Mediterranean countries began to compete in the globalized olive oil market. Thus, traditional producer countries of the Mediterranean basin like Italy as the third biggest olive oil producing country in 2016/17 are faced with new competitors around the globe.