My Opinion: There’s a ‘Fly’ in the Proposed US Olive Oil Marketing Order

 Farming & Gardening, Marketing, My Opinion, Olive Oil Standards, Olives and Olive Oil in General  4 Responses »
Apr 132012
 

This past Wednesday, Adam Englehardt of California Olive Ranch gave a two-part presentation to members of the Georgia Olive Growers Association, some Florida growers, USDA employees, Congressional staffers, and other involved parties. The first part of the presentation was data to support the proposed marketing order and the second part was a section by section look at the order.

No, I’m not going to divulge any aspects of the actual marketing order. I am honor-bound not to do so and while that doesn’t mean much to some folks, it does to me.

What I am going to do is identify what I have determined is a fly in the ointment of the proposed US olive oil marketing order. The ‘fly’ is small and annoying right now but after feasting on distrust and resulting ill-will has the potential of tanking the marketing order. It makes me wonder - naivete or plan?

Prior to the presentation and meeting on Wednesday I had no opinion about the order. After reading the proposed marketing order and after considering the options and opportunities it presents for the United States olive industry I support the concept. The language is still rough and some crucial pieces are missing.

During Adam’s first presentation, I began to hear the fly. Throughout it the buzzing got louder and finally subsided when he launched into the marketing order section review. Then all of a sudden the buzzing started again and the fly began to furiously circle the room.

So Olive Crazy what does the fly represent? The fly is the niggle in the back of your brain. It is the hair standing up on your arms or the back of your neck. It is the bad omen. It is the sign of danger.

I have had and in some cases still enjoy successful careers in the military, politics, and business. Not only do I make sure I am well-educated in the areas in which I operate; can implement what I know at strategic and tactical levels; but I have great instincts and I trust them. The fly in this article is representing my instinct that some things aren’t adding up and these things, unless resolved now, will cause trouble.

Here are a few of those things:

  1. Spain is the largest exporter of olive oil in the world (not Italy – they’ve got a bottling scheme going on which makes people think they are).
  2. Spain is a charter member of the International Olive Council (IOC) which is controlled by olive oil mega corporations who have been identified as exporters of fake olive oil (seed oils masquerading as olive oil) and/or low-grade olive oil masquerading as extra virgin olive oil.
  3. Spanish investors started California Olive Ranch in the 1990s and still hold the reins.
  4. The California Olive Ranch is carrying the ball for the marketing order.
  5. The California Olive Ranch, with limited input, has created a national olive oil trade association, hired a lobbyist at the federal level, and have already commenced lobbying even though there is no record of lobbyist registration.
  6. A representative from Agromillora, Spain’s largest olive grower, was sitting in the room with us during Adam’s presentation.
  7. Adam Englehardt, who I genuinely like, claims to be politically naive, yet is making politically-sensitive decisions for an entire industry.

There are more items I could add to this list, my intention is not to sabotage the olive oil marketing order process but to alert United States olive oil stakeholders of pending problems, which can be fixed. The marketing order process is 10% business and 90% political. The 90% includes governmental, business, and personality driven politics. Strategic errors are being made which will destroy the best efforts of American olive growers and olive oil producers to enter, in any meaningful way, the global olive oil business, much less combat a cracking, but still powerful, Europe-based world olive oil trade.

If the market order process isn’t done properly the consumers of the world’s largest potential olive oil market, the east coast of the United States, will still have to buy price-altered, fake and low-quality imported olive oil, while US olive oil is relegated to the annals of agriculture as a quaint novelty.

May the sun shine through your branches.

www.olivecrazy.com

My Opinion: Olive Crazy Has a Theory and a Recipe for Disaster

 Books, My Opinion, Olives and Olive Oil in General  Comments Off
Jan 012012
 

Lately I have been munching through several books at one time, including my daily diet of olive-related news articles. Most of the books I am reading are of the business, economics, and crime flavor. One of the books in this “meal” is Tom Mueller’s, Extra Virginity … a book I started the week after it was published and am still savoring.

Sometime last week I began to notice relationships among these books, specifically, relationships between business/criminal actions of the past centuries and business/criminal activities of the present. This morning I woke up with a theory. I went to the sources that gelled my idea to verify my understanding of the passages that lead me to that theory. I verified what I could and modified my thoughts a bit.

Here are the books and the article that stimulated my idea, in the order I read or am reading them:

  1. Elements of Shipping by Alan Edward Branch
  2. Paddy Whacked: The Untold Story of the Irish-American Gangster by T.J. English
  3. Sovena USA First Ever Lab to be Certified by International Olive Council in United States: Top Olive Oil Importer Becomes Only U.S. Company to Hold Certification published on December 5, 2011 on PR Newswire
  4. Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil by Tom Mueller also published on December 5, 2011
  5. The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly by David Meerman Scott
  6. The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis

Here is my theory:

The Mediterranean olive oil adulteration business/criminal activity is moving it’s main operations lock, stock, and bulk shipment to the United States.

I’m going to be kind of a jerk here and not explain how I arrived at my theory, instead I am going to provide you with a list of ingredients for this recipe for disaster. After you prepare this recipe tell me if it tastes the way I think it does.

Whisk together 5 books and 1 article. Slowly fold into this mixture 1 cup of boiling politics, 2 tablespoons of consumer ignorance, 1 dollop of soft regulatory environment, 1 loaf of potential-willing market torn into smaller pieces, and several million tons of “extra virgin olive oil”. Bake, sprinkle dish with 1 bag of EU economy crumbles, and serve. Mmmmmmmmm – nasty!

May the sun shine through your branches.

www.olivecrazy.com

My Opinion: Use of the Word ‘Transparency’ by the International Olive Council

 My Opinion, Olives and Olive Oil in General  1 Response »
Dec 012011
 

I just read the latest article from the International Olive Council (IOC) entitled “International Olive Council Seeks Greater ‘Transparency’“. The first thing I thought was, “they must be in some serious trouble.” The usage of the word ‘transparency’ is one of those million dollar public relations words suffused with powerful meanings. And the meanings aren’t exactly what you’d expect.

Throughout my thirty-year-long career as a lobbyist and politician I’ve learned a thing or two about the use of the word ‘transparency’. I’ve seen it used to bolster the sagging careers of politicians who’ve been caught with their hands in the cookie jar. I’ve seen it used by company CEOs trying to save their jobs and the companies they run while a major screw-up worms it’s way into news headlines. In these instances, the word ‘transparency’ is used as a shield for hiding something, or as a means of deflecting notice from unpleasant actions or previously hidden information that is now subject to public scrutiny.

Another use of ‘transparency’ is as code for “you show me what you’ve got and I’ll take a good look” – like the transparency afforded to a peep show viewer. This instance is often found in legislation and regulations.

In any case, the term is used, but is not actually defined by the user. Why? Because the word is charged with positive connotations, and those connotations are seductive. Why define the word when the person who hears or reads it will automatically think you’ve have nothing but good intentions. Do not be tricked into substituting your own version of what transparency should be with the one presented to you, not just by the IOC, but by anyone.

Just for fun I did a search for all the uses of the word ‘transparency’ in The Olive Oil Times database and eleven articles came up, including the one above. I went to each and searched the word ‘transparency’ to determine it’s usage. In one instance it was loosely defined as traceability and in another as an olive oil production process audit. Neither definition conformed with the other. In all the other articles the word was used in such a way that the reader could then attach whatever interpretation they wished.

In order to find out just what the IOC means by ‘transparency’ and their intended actions as it relates to the meaning, here are some questions they should answer.

  • What are you attempting to make transparent, and be specific?
  • How will you affect these transparencies, and be specific?
  • Are these transparency actions mandatory or voluntary?
  • How will you police these transparency actions?
  • What are the punitive measures for violation of the transparency actions?
  • What are the benefits of adherence to the transparency actions?
  • What is your transparency actions implementation timeline?

I know I sound jaded and I am. When a secretive, quasi-governmental, international organization is interested in transparency, you can be assured it’s not in the best interests of the two most chronically-aggrieved parties in the world olive oil industry, growers and consumers. It has been proven time and again that the International Olive Council (IOC) doesn’t implement it’s own rules and regulations, and doesn’t give a fig for growers and consumers even in their own member countries.

May the sun shine through your branches.

www.olivecrazy.com

My Opinion: Old vs. New and Packaging

 Cooking & Eating, My Opinion, Olives and Olive Oil in General  Comments Off
Nov 012011
 

The argument of old versus new always seems to gin up emotions and opposition. Whether it’s olive varieties and growing techniques, olive oil packaging, or membership in the Old World Club (aka International Olive Council/IOC) passions are inflamed. Inflamed or not, the world is changing and so are the olive and olive oil industries. Here are a few observations about packaging and my freely proffered opinions.

If you do or don’t like what I have to say about olive oil packaging, give me an intelligent argument and not an outburst. Discussions about olive oil packaging can get heated.  There is the clear glass vs. dark glass debate; the glass vs. plastic debate; the decant vs. keep it in original container debate; and now thanks to two innovative companies, one in South Africa and one in Australia there are some new packaging debates to enliven your future. Let’s explore them.

This past June I read an article by South African journalist, food and wine critic, and sausage entrepreneur, Peter James-Smith. It was entitled Pink Sauce but toward the end of the article he mentioned a new type of olive oil bottle created for and used by the South African olive oil producers at Willow Creek. Peter and I emailed a bit and he sent me the press release about Willow Creek’s award winning olive oil squirt bottle and then I settled in for a think about the bottle’s virtues or weaknesses.

In the meantime, I received a comment from an incredulous Olive Crazy reader accusing me of the atrocity of supporting the squirt bottle, even though I had merely stated that it existed. However, now ye of little inventiveness and foresight, bring it on. I officially have decided that I like the squirt bottle. MAIS NON!

I have a tendency, just like a lot of folks, to go with the tried and true and ignore the virtues of the new, but I’ve decided to stop giving in to the intellectual laziness of succumbing to tradition in an industry that is again vibrant and new. So squirt bottle, I am venturing into newness by liking you and bowing to the end of the dribbling and puddling in my kitchen each time I drizzle or pour my favorite extra virgin olive oil. I also like that your bottle is dark and even though it is plastic, it doesn’t have the nasties that some plastic bottles contain. Thumbs up.

Now for the second, new, olive oil packaging, there is the Barossa Olive Oil Company’s Ollo Extra Virgin Olive Oil in an airtight, collapsible-bladder, food-service packaging. For the folks in a commercial kitchen instead of big tin cans that are difficult to completely empty, this seems like an improvement.

I also read about the Ollo packaging, in retail form, on Australian scientist, Richard Gawel’s blog, Slick Extra Virgin. I haven’t seen it available in stores in the Atlanta area, but that doesn’t mean isn’t available somewhere on the continent. You must read his comments on the packaging. I couldn’t have said it better.

Whether it’s packaging or anything else about the olive and olive oil industries these days, you can be sure controversy isn’t far behind and I look forward to fanning the flames.

May the sun shine through your branches.

www.olivecrazy.com

My Opinion: US/California Olive Industry Takes a Political Beating Again

 My Opinion, Olives and Olive Oil in General  Comments Off
Sep 192011
 

When you read the history of the US/California olive industry, it is a multi-century saga of small successes followed by big defeats. These defeats are frequently politically-motivated and are not made by foreign governments, but by the US government and both dominant US political parties. Here are three examples:

Beating # 1. After World War II, the US was positioned to be the world leader in olive oil and table olive production. The reason was that the war-devastated, Mediterranean, olive-producing countries could not produce sufficient fruit to satisfy the world market at that time. In a short-sighted series of blunders, Presidents Truman (D) and Eisenhower (R) and their Congresses (D and R), gave world-wide authority to the newly formed United Nations, and blessed the subsidization of olive oil by the European countries that formed their price-control cabal, the International Olive Oil Council n/k/a International Olive Council (IOC).

Beating # 2. It’s 2008 and the olive fruit fly is plaguing the revived, US olive industry. The pest, which rarely gets out-of-control in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa, has found a happy home in California and is busily munching away. US olive industry revival stands to take a huge hit. US Congressman Mike Thomas (D) asks for money in the Congressional budget to conduct scientific research on the olive fruit fly (this is normal procedure for all Members of Congress). Alaska Governor Sarah Palin (R) is running for US Vice President and attacks this and other scientific, research projects as pork barrel spending. Democrats and Republicans alike jump on the band wagon and the fruit fly munches on.

Beating # 3. Now, in 2011, the “Arab Spring” revolutions are slowly winding down. Again, US politicians are ignorantly taking another swing at the suffering US olive industry. The current President (D) and Congress (R) are planning on propping up another country’s olive industry to the possible damage of their own. Here is an important article, a must-read by Stacy Finz of the San Francisco Chronicle: “U.S. aid to Morocco worries California olive farmers“.

Who’s to blame for US political ignorance about it’s own olive industry? Get ready – the US olive industry is to blame. There is no organized US effort to educate and lobby Congress. Sure, the small, thinly-stretched, olive-knowledgeable, California, academic population tries to make a go at this, but their attempts only highlight the olive industry’s failure to establish itself as a “force” in the real center of US political power, Washington, DC. The US olive industry, without a strong national organization ready to behave as the “power broker” it should be, is just another industry marketing a boutique fruit. California may be the place where most of the trees and knowledge are, but it has consistently shown it is not the place where political power develops.

International, commercial olive production is expanding rapidly. The Mediterranean basin olive-producing countries are weak, but are fighting hard to expand into new territories and revive old markets. All this is going on while the US olive industry focuses on its navel and weeps fat, briny tears of self pity. I have no patience for this display. If the US olive industry is unwilling to put up the money necessary to create a real organization, lobby Congress, and market their product in this country, which happens to be the largest potential market for olive oil specifically (the IOC knows this), then they deserve to sputter along for another couple hundred years tagged as a perpetually-emerging market.

Power broker or hobbyist – you decide.

May the sun shine through your branches.

www.olivecrazy.com