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<pre>Brian

750ml?

Peter
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<pre>----- Original Message -----
From: Brian Chatterton

In the Bread and Circus supermarket they were selling Capezzana
olive oil which is one of the top premium oils from Tuscany at prices only
50% above those in Italy (about $US16 a bottle....

Just the person I want to talk to ;-) I just came back from Italy with 5 oils
from the Lucca area. Tomorrow, I'll bring in brand names & hopefully you can
tell me what I bought ;-)

I've tasted differences between oils, and know what virgin/extra virgin/etc all
means, and have started to read about how its made, but am truly a newbie to the
finer points of olive oil.

thanks,
margaret
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<pre>Brian

That good Italian oil at $US16 (assuming a 750ml bottle) equates to $A25 or
$A33/litre retail. I would have thought there was sufficient margin to more
than rival that price. If olive prices settle at around $A400/tonne, which
is my feeling, this would equate to oil prices being $A2/litre (assuming an
extraction rate of 20%). At $A600/tonne the price would be $3/litre. At
$A800 it would be $A4/litre. At $1000/tonne - the price I will pay next
season - it will be $5/litre.

Of course there are the production costs but even so I feel the margins are
there.

The major advantages of the Australian scene are also not to be forgotten.
Mechanical harvesting will spring up as a new industry by 2002. A
favourable (but flucuating certainly) exchange rate. Our green/clean image
etc. On top of which all the oil produced should be of exceptional quality
which augurs well for us to follow our wine industry.

As Sweeney states, there may be as many as 5 million trees in full
production in Australia by 2006. This oil from these trees will match local
(Australian) consumption and it therefore essential that we develop export
markets. The link below can be followed up for those interested.

http://www.rirdc.gov.au/pub/handbook/olive.html

You can bet that the price for olives around that time will be toward the
lower end.

Regards

Peter
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<pre>Having just come back from ten days holiday in Boston I was struck
by how cheap good Italian olive oil was compared to many other imported
Italian products.

In the Bread and Circus supermarket they were selling Capezzana
olive oil which is one of the top premium oils from Tuscany at prices only
50% above those in Italy (about $US16 a bottle) while the wines I am
familiar with were all more than 100% markup. One reasonable (certainly
not a premium wine) Chianti which sells in our local Coop supermarket for
about $US4.50 a bottle cost $23 in a Boston ristorante!!

The oil prices are certainly good news from consumers but maybe not
for producers.

Cheers Brian Chatterton.
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