The Elephant in the Room at Dolce e Salato Fest: Olive Oil

Today in Brooklyn was the Dolce e Salato fest, a celebration of Italy’s culinary art. But one big problem had everyone at the event worried. Gulia Leo has more. ---TRANSCRIPT--- LEO 1 In a small room in an unassuming Brooklyn building, 20 or so vendors are selling everything from handmade pasta, to gelato to panettone. By the entrance, Fabio de Nadai is making coffee after coffee, and if you keep walking you’ll get to the oven station to find Massimo La Veglia of L’Industrie pizzeria making pizza. LA VEGLIA 1 [In Italian] Farina, acqua, sale, due percento di olio, lievito, e tanto amore. LEO 2 Flour, water, salt, yeast, much love… and olive oil, of course. These are the ingredients of an authentic Italian pizza according to La Veglia. The organizer of Dolce e Salato, Sabrina Mancin, says the fest has one clear objective. MANCIN 1 I want entrepreneurs, I want people who are restaurant owners to find solutions for their shops. LEO 3 There is one problem in particular that retailers of made in Italy products are looking to solve. SUERI 1 There’s no olives. LEO 4 No olives. That was Marco Sueri of Prime Line, an American distributor of Italian products. He says because of the droughts and heatwaves that affected Europe last summer, there is a lower supply of olives. And fewer olives means less olive oil. SUERI 2 The trend is to look for cheaper oil because it really costs a lot now. LEO 5 A tin of high-quality extra virgin olive oil that Sueri would have sold for 70 Dollars last year now costs about 120. And because restaurants cannot afford to double their budget on oil, they go for a lower quality product. LEO 6 Some producers got creative. Giovanni Marchetto is here with Italian wheat company Petra. He explained Petra produces a special flour from wheat germ. MARCHETTO 1 The wheat germ has natural oil inside, which guarantees more taste and flavor. LEO 7 This flour is so moist and flavorful on its own that there is no need to add oil to the final preparation. LEO 8 Now that olive oil has become like liquid gold, will Italians like me stop drizzling it on our pasta or on our ùbruschetta? Yeah, I’ll let you know about that one. Giulia Leo, Columbia Radio News.