Italian olive oil statistics at a glance
Italian olive oil trade tells a clear story: volumes were volatile, values climbed sharply, and 2024 ended with a much smaller trade deficit than the mid-decade years. The most useful numbers are the ones that show how imports, exports, and trade balance moved together over time.
Fast fact: Italy imported 446 thousand tonnes of olive oil and pomace oil in 2024 and exported 344 thousand tonnes (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
Fast fact: The 2024 trade balance by volume was -102 thousand tonnes, the smallest deficit in the provided series (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
Fast fact: Import value in 2024 reached 3,131 million euros, while export value reached 3,088 million euros (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
Table of contents
- What the Italian olive oil trade data shows
- Year-by-year Italian olive oil statistics
- Imports, exports, and the trade balance
- What changed from 2015 to 2024
- Why the value figures matter
- Key patterns in the numbers
What the Italian olive oil trade data shows
The supplied dataset focuses on Italy’s olive oil and pomace oil trade from 2015 through 2024. That makes it especially useful for tracking a decade of change in a single, comparable series.
Key takeaways
- Imports stayed above exports in every year in the dataset, so Italy consistently ran a negative trade balance by volume (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
- The deficit narrowed sharply in 2023 and 2024 compared with the deeper gaps seen earlier in the series.
- Trade values rose strongly by the end of the period, even when volumes were lower than their mid-decade peaks.
- 2024 stands out as the closest point to balance in both volume and value among the provided years.
Why this matters
When you look only at tonnage, the market can appear to be moving in one direction. When you add value, a different picture emerges: the sector became more expensive in euro terms even as traded volumes fluctuated. That combination is central to understanding Italian olive oil statistics from this dataset.
Year-by-year Italian olive oil statistics
The cleanest way to read the series is to compare each year side by side. The table below keeps the core measures together so the changes are easier to scan.
| Year | Imports (thousand tonnes) | Exports (thousand tonnes) | Trade balance (thousand tonnes) | Import value (million euros) | Export value (million euros) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | 583 | 362 | -221 | 1,859 | 1,530 |
| 2016 | 570 | 398 | -172 | 1,791 | 1,618 |
| 2017 | 531 | 332 | -199 | 1,959 | 1,573 |
| 2018 | 550 | 335 | -215 | 1,641 | 1,495 |
| 2019 | 615 | 336 | -279 | 1,463 | 1,376 |
| 2020 | 656 | 410 | -246 | 1,383 | 1,467 |
| 2021 | 591 | 387 | -205 | 1,668 | 1,567 |
| 2022 | 624 | 390 | -234 | 2,220 | 1,889 |
| 2023 | 434 | 322 | -112 | 2,442 | 2,165 |
| 2024 | 446 | 344 | -102 | 3,131 | 3,088 |
The table highlights three important shifts.
- Volume peak and pullback. Imports reached 656 thousand tonnes in 2020, the highest import volume in the series, before dropping to 446 thousand tonnes in 2024 (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
- Export resilience. Exports also peaked in 2020 at 410 thousand tonnes, then remained in the 300-thousand-tonne range through 2024, finishing at 344 thousand tonnes (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
- Value acceleration. By 2024, import value and export value both moved above 3 billion euros, a level far above the earlier years in the dataset (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
At a glance
Big number: The highest import value in the dataset is 3,131 million euros in 2024 (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
Big number: The lowest trade deficit by volume is -102 thousand tonnes in 2024 (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
Big number: The largest deficit by volume is -279 thousand tonnes in 2019 (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
Imports, exports, and the trade balance
The import series is the most revealing starting point because it shows how much foreign supply Italy brought in each year.
Imports
Imports started at 583 thousand tonnes in 2015 and ended at 446 thousand tonnes in 2024 (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
A few points stand out:
- Imports were relatively high through 2020, including 615 thousand tonnes in 2019 and 656 thousand tonnes in 2020.
- They then moved down to 591 thousand tonnes in 2021 and 624 thousand tonnes in 2022 before falling much more sharply in 2023.
- The 2023 level of 434 thousand tonnes was the lowest import volume in the series, and 2024 remained only slightly above it at 446 thousand tonnes (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
Exports
Exports followed a similar but not identical pattern.
- They began at 362 thousand tonnes in 2015.
- The series rose to 398 thousand tonnes in 2016, then moved through 332 thousand tonnes in 2017 and 335 thousand tonnes in 2018.
- Exports reached 410 thousand tonnes in 2020, the highest figure in the dataset, before settling at 344 thousand tonnes in 2024 (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
Trade balance
The trade balance by volume stayed negative throughout the period.
- 2015: -221 thousand tonnes
- 2016: -172 thousand tonnes
- 2017: -199 thousand tonnes
- 2018: -215 thousand tonnes
- 2019: -279 thousand tonnes
- 2020: -246 thousand tonnes
- 2021: -205 thousand tonnes
- 2022: -234 thousand tonnes
- 2023: -112 thousand tonnes
- 2024: -102 thousand tonnes
That pattern matters because it shows a narrowing gap in the last two years. The deficit in 2024 was less than half the 2019 deficit, indicating a much tighter trade position by volume (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
What changed from 2015 to 2024
The full decade comparison is where the biggest structural change appears.
Starting point versus ending point
In 2015, Italy imported 583 thousand tonnes and exported 362 thousand tonnes, leaving a volume deficit of -221 thousand tonnes (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
By 2024, Italy imported 446 thousand tonnes and exported 344 thousand tonnes, leaving a smaller deficit of -102 thousand tonnes (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
That means:
- Imports fell by 137 thousand tonnes from 2015 to 2024.
- Exports fell by 18 thousand tonnes over the same span.
- The trade gap narrowed by 119 thousand tonnes.
The reduction in the deficit came more from lower imports than from a dramatic export surge. That is an important reading of Italian olive oil statistics, because it suggests the market balance improved partly through reduced dependence on inbound supply.
The mid-decade contrast
The biggest deficit in the series came in 2019, when imports hit 615 thousand tonnes, exports were 336 thousand tonnes, and the balance fell to -279 thousand tonnes (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
Compare that with 2024:
- Imports were 169 thousand tonnes lower than in 2019.
- Exports were 8 thousand tonnes higher than in 2019.
- The deficit improved by 177 thousand tonnes.
That is the clearest sign that the 2023 and 2024 numbers were not just ordinary fluctuations. They represented a materially tighter trade profile than the earlier years in the dataset.
Why the value figures matter
Volume alone does not tell the whole story, because the euro values rose strongly by the end of the period.
Import value trend
Import value moved from 1,859 million euros in 2015 to 3,131 million euros in 2024 (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
That is a substantial increase even though the 2024 import volume was lower than several earlier years. A few reference points make the shift clearer:
- 2019: 1,463 million euros
- 2020: 1,383 million euros
- 2022: 2,220 million euros
- 2023: 2,442 million euros
- 2024: 3,131 million euros
The jump from 2,442 million euros in 2023 to 3,131 million euros in 2024 is one of the sharpest value changes in the series (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
Export value trend
Export value also rose materially.
- 2015: 1,530 million euros
- 2016: 1,618 million euros
- 2017: 1,573 million euros
- 2018: 1,495 million euros
- 2019: 1,376 million euros
- 2020: 1,467 million euros
- 2021: 1,567 million euros
- 2022: 1,889 million euros
- 2023: 2,165 million euros
- 2024: 3,088 million euros
The key takeaway is that export value nearly doubled from 2015 to 2024, even though export tonnage did not double. That suggests a higher euro realization per tonne in the later part of the series, based on the supplied figures alone (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
A compact comparison
| Metric | 2015 | 2024 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Imports, thousand tonnes | 583 | 446 | -137 |
| Exports, thousand tonnes | 362 | 344 | -18 |
| Trade balance, thousand tonnes | -221 | -102 | +119 |
| Import value, million euros | 1,859 | 3,131 | +1,272 |
| Export value, million euros | 1,530 | 3,088 | +1,558 |
This is the simplest way to summarize the decade: Italy’s olive oil trade became smaller in tonnage but much larger in euro value.
Key patterns in the numbers
Several patterns show up again and again across the dataset.
1. The trade balance was always negative
Every single year in the provided series shows a negative balance by volume. That means the country imported more olive oil and pomace oil than it exported in each year from 2015 through 2024 (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
2. 2024 was the closest year to balance
The -102 thousand tonne deficit in 2024 was the smallest in the series. That makes 2024 the most balanced year in the dataset, even though imports still exceeded exports (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
3. 2020 was the strongest volume year for both imports and exports
Both imports and exports peaked in 2020:
- Imports: 656 thousand tonnes
- Exports: 410 thousand tonnes
- Balance: -246 thousand tonnes
That year therefore stands out as the highest-throughput point in the series, not the most balanced one (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
4. The last two years were a reset, not a repeat
The 2023 and 2024 numbers are not just lower versions of earlier years. They show a different structure:
- Imports fell below the mid-decade range.
- Exports stayed relatively resilient.
- The trade deficit tightened dramatically.
- Values climbed to the highest levels in the dataset.
That combination makes the final two years especially important when reading Italian olive oil statistics as a trend series rather than as isolated annual snapshots.
5. Values outpaced volumes in the later years
The most notable long-run shift is the widening gap between tonnage and euro value. The dataset does not provide price-per-tonne calculations, so it is best to stay with the supplied figures. Even so, the direction is clear: by 2024, the value side of the market had moved much higher than in the mid-decade years, while volumes were lower or only modestly changed (ISMEA Scheda di settore: Olio di oliva, agosto 2025).
Useful reading cues for the dataset
- If you want the biggest volume year, look at 2020.
- If you want the smallest deficit, look at 2024.
- If you want the widest deficit, look at 2019.
- If you want the highest import and export values, look at 2024.
- If you want the most balanced trade year in the series, again, look at 2024.
These cues make the dataset easier to use in SEO content, reporting, or comparison pages because the core facts are now grouped by outcome rather than by raw chronology.