The (justified!) anger of Italian olive growers over aid to Tunisia has not subsided, which will export 35 thousand tonnes of olive oil to the European Union market for 2016 and an equal quantity for 2017 at zero duty (i.e. at no cost!).
The measure, approved on February 25 by the European Parliament to help the North African country hit by terrorism, risks damaging Italian producers. Especially the Apulian ones!
«The exported Tunisian olive oil – explains Vincenzo Lucarella – is not traced, and therefore can easily mix with other types of Italian and non-Italian, extra virgin and non-Italian oil, and magically become Italian, to the detriment not only of us producers but also of the Italian consumers. In other words, there will be real chaos which will only increase the number of frauds in the olive oil sector. Therefore, it is very important that the Italian consumer carefully reads the label on the bottle of oil he purchases to avoid deception and fraud that have little to do with the guarantees of quality and Italian nature of the product.
The latest measure approved by the EU is nothing more than an ad hoc law for those who continue to promote and defend the industrial product to the detriment of those who, like us, try to offer the market products of the highest quality with relative traceability of the same . And then, there is a lot of talk about the fight against Italian sounding in defense of "made in Italy" but, in doing so, in my opinion, we bring it to the end, also because with all the frauds that have occurred and those that will occur 100% Italian risks no longer being credible.
And then, I conclude, why does the EU bother to help an African country in the midst of a crisis when in Italy, and especially in Puglia, there are olive oil companies that are dying?!».
tagadaFor further information, we invite you to watch the report on Tunisian olive oil and the interview with Vincenzo Lucarella carried out for the Tagadà program and broadcast last March 3 on La7
