An Italian surname on the label. A tricolor ribbon. A line drawing of cypress trees. Everything about the bottle says Italy — except, quite possibly, the oil inside it.
The mechanics are simple. Italy is both a producer of olive oil and a great hub for bottling and trading it. Bulk oil grown elsewhere can be shipped in, blended in Italian facilities, and sold under Italian-styled branding, with the true origins disclosed only in the smallest print — often as a string of countries, or a phrase covering oils “of European Union and non-European Union origin.” Nothing about it is illegal. It is simply a costume.
Genuinely Italian oil does not need the costume, because it has an address. Posterino’s address is San Procopio, in the province of Reggio Calabria, where our family has farmed for six generations and where every olive in our oil is grown, hand-picked, and pressed at our own frantoio. If you want Italian oil, do not look for Italian imagery. Look for an Italian farm — ours has been in the same village since the 1950s, and it is not going anywhere.
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