Sustainable Olive Oil Value Chain

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Fiera Milano, Rho
05-08.05.2025

Ethics and sustainability

Sustainable Olive Oil Value Chain

PIETRO CORICELLI spa

Pietro Coricelli, from Umbria, Italy, with more than 80 years history, is one of the largest olive oil companies in Europe, and has some of the most distributed brands worldwide, counting also with leading brands and products on the Italian market. Our project, "Sustainable Olive Oil Value Chain", pioneer in the olive oil industry in Italy, was originally born in 2020 with origin traceability for our Casa Coricelli brand, and evolved in 2021, with a double objective: 1) Guarantee transparency about both origin and quality of our products. 2) Assure an appropriate remuneration for olive oil growers. On one hand, joining IBM Food Trust, we track our extra-virgin olive oil using blockchain technology. The one-liter bottles of Coricelli's classic extra-virgin olive oil, our best-selling product, was the first product traced. By scanning a QR code on the bottle, consumers are now able to access an immutable digital ledger with information about the product and the various internal and external analyses and tests conducted to certify its contents. On the other hand, again for the first time in the olive oil industry in Italy, we signed a 3 years contract with Coldiretti, the main agricultural entrepreneurs organization in Italy and Europe, and Unaprol, Italian olive tree growers Association, for a 2 million kilos purchasing of 100% Italian extra virgin olive oil that not only guarantees a sell for olive trees growers, but also an appropriate remuneration for the purchased raw material. To offer this service, the company invested more than 285.000 €, to update production lines, allowing the QR placement with unique information on each bottle and to share our commitment with the whole value chain with national media campaigns, both traditional and digital, that had more than 10,5 million impacts in less than 2 weeks. In a sector like extra-virgin olive oil, where it is necessary to share information about the raw materials used, "Sustainable Olive Oil Value Chain" is the first project in the olive oil industry aimed to use blockchain to document the quality and safety of its olive oil, while guaranteeing appropriate remuneration for olive tree growers and transparently helping consumers make more conscious and informed purchase decisions, acting therefore on the whole olive oil value chain, from field to fork. Nowadays, we have 2 blockchain traced products, that sold almost 5 million bottles in 2022, and the company is reinforcing its commitment with transparency, quality, and the whole value chain, and is aiming to extend the project not only to these products sold in the Italian market, but also to other sizes and export markets.