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<pre>Dear Mike,

You're right about the consumer awareness to the product. The Italian
is a very mature market when it comes to quality and it's easier market
such products.
I have returned home to Portugal and here the olive oil market is very
different, people are used to a mild "Galega" EVOO that goes well with
fish, and if you give them something stronger they thing that strong
bite has something to do with acidity and will reject the product.
In my opinion the OO sector must invest in consumer education that will
be the only way to defend ourselves from the other vegetable oils.

About the IOOC - Australia story, what i have been told is that, there
are problems over the linoleic acid content of some of the Australian
oils, it goes above IOOC standards (and according to IOOC couldn't be
classified as OO). So Australia with the help of the US forced an
change of the CODEX Alimentarius rules in order for these oils to come
in to standards. But this move backfired, the main OO consumers are the
members of the IOOC so Australia cant export to them (at least not that
easily). And on the other hand the IOOC countries that produce an OO
that doesn't obey to the IOOC standards, but comes within the rules of
the CODEX can export to Australia. These situation creates a kind of
"Legislation Dumping" effect, because where talking about oils that
cant be sold in the IOOC markets, and therefor have a very low price
and just flood your market.

The only strategy I cant see that will protect you from this situation,
other them consumer education, is creating a consortium that controls,
certifies and guaranties the quality and origin of the Australians OO.
Similar to what happens in Europe with the PDO products (for those who
don't know what they are :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protect...tion_of_origin). The
Italian OO bottling industry recently created a quality consortium to
defend themselves from the Andalusian low quality oil, it guaranties
that the olive oil used obeys to quality standards.

Regards,

João Correia

On 30 May, 2005, at 11:55, Mike Wilson wrote:
>

> Thanks for your comments João, but we have a significantly different
> market
> here to Italy (I assume you are in Italy?).
etc ...
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<pre>Hi Mike,

It has been an interistering subject. I guess it has not gone the way I thought
it might as I wanted to learn HOW To infuse oil.

Still it has been most enjoyable. But this leads one to think just what "rules"
does one follow or are there any rules at all.

As was suggested if you do a google search just about all countries seem to
supply infused oils and I as a learner here in Australia like the different tang
of the infused oils rather than the olive oil my mother gave off a spoon every
day when a child.

So how do I infuse oil?

Terry
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Thanks João. Yes, we do have a bit of a problem and as an industry there
doesn't seem to be any clear path to the future. You have outlined the
problem we face very well, as the main market (Europe) is also the main
competitor, so we can't expect a free ride. The AOA has made moves along
with the NZOA (?) to have some form of origin / quality assurance program
but it looks like a long road ahead to get it established, accepted and
enforced.

Regards,

Mike Wilson.

Lambros you are spot on with your far more detailed analysis of the olive
oil market. My line was not really intended to be acurate, merely indicative
of the entrenched ideas of what olive oil should taste like.


The one obstacle I still come up against is price. Quite simply there is
decent quality oil from Cyprus and Crete available from the local food
wholesalers at half the price I have to ask. Sure, they would prefer local,
and sure the restaurants will serve my oil on the table for dipping, but
this is still only a tiny segment of the total amount of oil they use in the
restaurant.



I can't fault any of this. We have to be realistic about what we can do and
the time frame we can do it in. I have great respect for Piquant Blue,
Dandaragan and the others up the Big End of town with their top quality
products, packaging and marketing and I really hope they spread the message
so that little blokes like me can find a little niche somewhere and make a
quid out of all this. Your wine analogy works well - without Jacobs Creek
opening up the UK market there wouldn't be much of a wine industry left.

Regards,

Mike Wilson
Hunter Valley.

Hi Terry,

Try to have a look here http://world.std.com/~krahe/oils.html - a pretty
good introduction site.

cheers
Tine