martedì 17 giugno 2014

Selling olive oil in London - Borough Market #1

Dearest,
sustainability is not just a matter of environment and fairness, it's also gaining the "right" price for the efforts spent in producing the "right" end-product.
Speaking about food, and olive oil specifically, the so called "value chain" along which the product's price reach its final value is typically rich in intermediaries. The higher the number of intermediaries between the producer and the final customer our dearest "consumer" - or we should say "prosumer" - the higher the end-price. Whenever the price needs to be lowered to gain in competitiveness, value is often cut off the producer's share, isn't it?

Well, someone could say "that's the market baby!" meaning that if your bargaining power is low you cannot ask for more. We are not going to post any comment to this latter, however direct-selling is one option producers have to gain the most value from their products. Here we want to show an example, the Borough market in London- Southwark Street.

 

Long way from saying "this is what you should do!" we want to present how an organization can be built around a message - fresh, safe & specialty food - to get the best out of it.

Was olive oil there? Yes of course!

domenica 15 giugno 2014

The "price" of Sustainability - step #1

How much should a product cost to really accomplish with sustainability? If a bottle of extra virgin olive oil has a really cheap price two questions should hit our mind: “is it really good quality?” and “was it produced according to sustainability?”. As for the second question, it may happen that behind a low price there’s a production process where cost saving was achieved polluting the environment, exploiting workers, exploiting other resources from local population or whatsoever.

Hence, let’s start from here: a list of the latest prices for bulk extra virgin olive oil in the main markets of origin (from Oliveoilmarket.eu). Take a look and start comparing with the price you payed for the wonderful olive oil bottle you have at home.

We’ll come back on it later, keep following us!

One more thing: if you are a producer, trader of anyonelse involved in the extra virgin olive oil market leave us a feedback on this table.


PURCHASE OF EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL IN EUROPE
Prices of oil extraparthenou €/kg(*)
City
A
B
C
D
Jaen(ES)
1.98
1.92
3.12%
K
Granada(ES)
1.98
1.92
3.12%
Estremadura(ES)
1.98
1.92
3.12%
Cordoba(ES)
1.98
1.98
0.00%
Toledo(ES)
2.01
1.98
1.51%
Borjas(ES)
2.48
2.48
0.00%
-15.10%
Sevilla(ES)Arbequiiio
2.16
2.16
0.00%
Sevilla(ES)
2.1
2.1
0.00%
%
Bari(IT)
3.61
3.58
0.80%
14.10%
Andria(IT)
3.05
3.52
-13.35%
Foggia(IT)
3.53
3.52
0.40%
15.70%
Bitonto(IT)
3.1
3.52
-11.90%
Taranto(IT)
3.05
3
1.70%
15.10%
Cosenza(IT)
3.2
3.18
0.80%
13.30%
Catanzaro(IT)
3.25
3.18
2.40%
14.10%
Salerno(It)
3.6
3.6
0.00%
0.00%
Chieti(IT)
3.75
3.85
-3.60%
5.60%
Palermo(IT)
3.6
3.6
0.00%
10.80%
Trapani(IT)
3.8
3.8
0.00%
13.40%
ReggioCalabria(IT)
3.6
3.5
2.90%
9.10%
Catania(IT)
4.7
4.5
4.40%
14.60%
Pescara(IT)
3.75
3.75
0.00%
8.70%
Viterbo(IT)
5.1
5.1
0.00%
3.00%
Kalamata
2.78
2.78
0.00%
9.60%
Kalamata: (estimates 2.85-2,90 € /kg)
Sparta
2.88
2.88
0.00%
10.50%
Crete
2.76
2.77
-0.30%
8.30%
Mytilene(Virgin)
2.08
2.08
5.60%
13.70%
Stax(Tunisia)
2.28
2.28
0.00%
-13.30%

A= 20th week in 2014 (18 May 2014) 
B= 19th week in 2014
C= % change in price of 20 on the 2014 previus
D= % change in price for the same week of 2013.

Source:

http://www.oliveoilmarket.eu on data from:Ismea, Camere di Commercio Italiane, Sistema de informacion de precios en origen del mercato de contado dell’aceide de oliva. Olimerca. elies-ladikalamatiano