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The trade in adulterated olive oil.


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rumisongAug 16, 2007 9:01am
From the page:

    Letter from Italy
    Slippery Business
    The trade in adulterated olive oil.
    by Tom Mueller August 13, 2007

    "Fraud is so widespread that few growers can make an honest living," one expert says.

    On August 10, 1991, a rusty tanker called the Mazal II docked at the industrial port of Ordu, in Turkey, and pumped twenty-two hundred tons of hazelnut oil into its hold. The ship then embarked on a meandering voyage through the Mediterranean and the North Sea. By September 21st, when the Mazal II reached Barletta, a port in Puglia, in southern Italy, its cargo had become, on the ship's official documents, Greek olive oil. It slipped through customs, possibly with the connivance of an official, was piped into tanker trucks, and was delivered to the refinery of Riolio, an Italian olive-oil producer based in Barletta. There it was sold--in some instances blended with real olive oil--to Riolio customers.

    Between August and November of 1991, the Mazal II and another tanker, the Katerina T., delivered nearly ten thousand tons of Turkish hazelnut oil and Argentinean sunflower-seed oil to Riolio, all identified as Greek olive oil. Riolio's owner, Domenico Ribatti, grew rich from the bogus oil, assembling substantial real-estate holdings, including a former department store in Bari. He bribed two officials, one with cash, the other with cartons of olive oil, and made trips to Rome, where he stayed at the Grand Hotel, and met with other unscrupulous olive-oil producers from Italy and abroad. As one of Italy's leading importers of olive oil, Ribatti's company was a member of ASSITOL, the country's powerful olive-oil trade association, and Ribatti had enough clout in Rome to ask a favor--preferential treatment of an associate's nephew, who was seeking admission to a military officers' school--of a high-ranking official at the Finance Ministry, a fellow-pugliese.


the full article here:

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TS-guyJan 16, 8:48pm
I heard about these schemes a few years ago. consequently, I started buying only non-Italian olive oil. with great results. I found out the each region around the Mediterranean has unique tasting olive oil. I now prefer the olive oil from north Africa, especially Morocco. But the Turkish OO very nice too. what a waste diluting it then selling it as italian.


The trade in adulterated olive oil.

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