Italy extends olive "six-hour rule" to 2027 as mills call for a permanent framework

Italy has extended until 2027 the application of the so-called "six-hour rule", the provision that limits the time allowed between the delivery of olives by traders and their processing at the mill. The extension was reported by lattacco.it and newtuscia.it, which noted that it was confirmed just before the opening of the new olive oil campaign.

The three organisations that had pressed for the change — AIFO (Associazione Italiana Frantoi Oleari), Assofrantoi and Italia Olivicola — said they welcomed the decision, describing it as a response to requests made by the supply chain so that the rule would not add a further complication at an already difficult moment for the sector.

What the provision regulates

The rule concerns delivery times for olives sold by traders to pressing plants, requiring the fruit to reach the mill within six hours — a window aimed at limiting deterioration before extraction. According to lattacco.it, applying that limit as written risked making the movement of olives over medium and long distances hardly practicable.

The consequence, the publication reported, would have been twofold: a narrower supply basin for mills, which draw olives from a catchment area wider than their immediate surroundings, and a smaller pool of potential buyers for olive growers, who would have been restricted to plants within a few hours' transport.

A tense market backdrop

The organisations placed the decision in the context of current market conditions. lattacco.it wrote that the difficulty created by the six-hour limit would have been added to tensions already affecting the olive oil market and to the significant volumes still held in the tanks of many operators. Carry-over stocks entering the new season alongside the fresh crop leave less room for logistical friction in the collection and pressing phase.

"The extension is welcome: our representations were heard and a further difficulty right at the start of the new campaign has been avoided," said Alberto Amoroso, president of AIFO, quoted by lattacco.it. "Now let us use the time available to identify an appropriate deadline and settle the question definitively, without again arriving right up against the expiry date."

Mills want rules matched to plant operations

Paolo Mariani, president of Assofrantoi, said the measure was "an important answer for mills, and it comes at the right moment", adding that work should now focus on "a set of rules that takes account of the actual operation of plants and of the dynamics of olive supply".

Gennaro Sicolo, president of Italia Olivicola, framed the outcome as evidence of joint lobbying by the two ends of the chain. "Teamwork pays off and produces tangible results," he said. "Producers and millers together presented a concrete problem and obtained an answer. Let us continue with this method to strengthen and protect the entire Italian olive-growing chain."

Two years to design a permanent regime

All three bodies made the same point after welcoming the deferral: the extension resolves the immediate urgency on the eve of the new campaign but does not close the file. Talks on a definitive framework should start immediately, they said, so that a solution is reached well in advance of the new expiry rather than in the final weeks before it.

What that framework contains will shape how mills organise collection from 2027 onwards. A longer fixed time limit and a rule tied to how olives are transported and stored would imply different investment in reception and handling at plant level, and a different geography of buying for traders who aggregate lots from small growers.