A Social Analysis of the Olive Oil Sector: The Role of Family Business

Abstract

Extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) is one of the most popular products in Mediterranean diet. Spain produces about 52% of olive oil with the presence of larger firms; Italy follows with a share of 9% and a production structure characterized instead by small family businesses. A social analysis, based on a multiple-questionnaire, has analyzed the perspectives of 500 consumers conferring their olives to a family-owned olive oil mills (OOMs). This work aims to assess the role of family business evaluating the opportunities associated with the development of circular economy (CE) models. Results show that Italian consumers’ preferences give attention to the use of natural resource and the olive oil is perceived as a natural product. In addition, family owned-OOMs provide a great sense of trust and the relevant role of family within the entire life cycle of olive oil is demonstrated. OOMs that work for residential market are strongly preferred to industrial ones being able to manage single lots of olives belonging to the same customers’ land. The recovery of some by-products represents an opportunity for OOMs and policy support is required to favor the needed generational change, whose absence is perceived as a serious obstacle to the future development of the sector along circularity principles.

Life Cycle Sustainability Analysis of Resource Recovery from Waste Management Systems in a Circular Economy Perspective Key Findings from This Special Issue

“…In all contributions, the authors explored several relevant aspects connected with this SI's research theme, so enriching the current state-of-the-art in the field of sustainable waste recovery systems for production of value-added commodities under a CE perspective. Some of the sectors where CE can be beneficial for enhancement of their sustainability performance were explored in this SI's paper collection: post-use plastics end-of-life [11,30]; waste heat recovery [31]; waste management [32,33]; electrics and electronics [34]; and olive oil [35].…”

“…-Midpoint Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) focussed upon a single Environmental Indicator (EI), as done by Spierling et al [30]; -Midpoint LCA of multiple EIs [11]; -Endpoint LCA of multiple EIs extended to other relevant issues [31]; -Life-cycle multicriteria analysis as a decision support tool [32]; -Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (SWOT) analysis combined with other environmental assessment methodologies [33]; -Questionnaire-based investigation [34]; -Questionnaire-based investigation combined with a SWOT analysis [35].…”

“…In the area of making strategies, D'Adamo et al [35] carried out a socioeconomic assessment for identification of opportunities that enable CE development in the olive sector. In particular, they applied a SWOT analysis integrated with a questionnaire-based methodology, with the aim of gathering the perspectives of 500 consumers on the role of family business and on whether the olive oil residue management can provide prospects according to the CE principles.…”

“…The final aim of this interesting combined assessment was to learn about the extent to which the involved consumers' insights can be informative of the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the investigated sector. Attention was on the olive oil sector because it is characterised by the presence of family business, and so the authors thought it was worth studying the existence of a "family business brand" effect on consumers' perceptions [35]. In addition to this, the olive oil sector is characterised by a high level of competition, in which large firms are involved in the crushing of olives coming from several regions, thus optimising the processing time and the olive production costs.…”

Hyperspectral Reflectance as a Basis to Discriminate Olive Varieties—A Tool for Sustainable Crop Management

“…New approaches have been suggested to farmers in order to make traditional olive groves sustainable and viable again, in the context of the actual highly competitive international markets. Strategies of income diversification recommended to traditional agricultural businesses [42] can equally be implemented to traditional olive farms, such as (1) olive oil differentiation (by shifting from traditional to organic management or by adoption of specific production process and/or quality requirements [39,43,44]), (2) crop diversity (promoting diversification of agricultural production [45,46]), (3) development of non-agricultural products (such as olive oil related agro-tourism activities [47]) and (4) development of new agricultural-related products (innovative value-added by-products [48,49]). For implementation of the promising diversification strategies based on olive oil differentiation or on the development of innovative value-added products, a high quality of palatable products is required; this in turn relies on the olive varieties used, as each variety produces olive fruits with distinct organoleptic proprieties and chemical compositions.…”