Interview with the company Zucchi: the PL oil that relies on traceability and art of blending

IT’S NOW DIEGO GHISONI, AT OLEIFICIO ZUCCHI TRADE DIRECTOR, TO TAKE STOCK OF THE SITUATION WITH PL MAGAZINE.

Zucchi: the PL oil that relies on traceability and art of blending

Founded in 1810, based in Cremona, Zucchi is among the most important oil producers at the international level. It produces and distributes oils from its own-brand olives and seeds, for PL and the food industry. With 135 employees, it boasts a turnover of 265 million euros.

by Maria Teresa Giannini

Originally an artisanal business project dedicated to seed-oil extraction for food consumption by Zucchi’s family, over the years, the company has become a key industrial and trade business in oil production. In fact, they supply the main national and international large-scale distribution chains. We talked about it with Diego Ghisoni, trade director at Oleificio Zucchi.

What’s the importance of PL production and how significant was it on the 2021 total production? PL accounts for almost 50% of our turnover of the consumer division of Oleificio Zucchi. As in other sectors, PLs are growing in the oil industry, and tend to dominate high quality added-value premium segments, aiming at innovative elements, such as supply chain traceability.

What are the strength points of your production? For more than 70 years, we have supported distributors with an all-round service. Also due to important investments on plants, our 11 production lines have a productive capacity of 1.5 million liters of packaged oil per day. We have a refinery for seed oils with 500 refined tons per day and about 6 thousands tons of stocking capacity for extra virgin olive oil in ‘Cantina dell’Olio’, constantly kept at 16° degrees.

Oleificio Zucchi

Foundation year 1810

Employees 150

Turnover: 250

million euro (estimated in 2021) PL accounts for almost 50% of the turnover of the consumer division

Product safety and quality, of both own brands and PLs, are guaranteed by the accurate selection of raw materials and analysis made during the multiple steps of the process. In fact, every year, almost 37 thousand lab analyses are carried out, both during the process and on finished products. In addition to that, further assessment is given by the oil testing, taking place in a qualified Panel Room, officially approved for this use.

What does producing oil really mean in Italy today? Despite being the first Country for biodiversity of cultivar olive-growing (that is 538) in fact, Italy has to face the fierce competition of Spain and Tunisia. Our country has a demand of about one million tons of olive oil, if we consider the domestic consumption - about 500-550 thousands tons - plus exports. Local production (estimated at 350-400 thousand tons in a good year, such as in the 2019-20 vintage) satisfies these needs only partially, thus making the use of foreign oils inevitable. Italian companies know how to select the best quality in global production, by harmonizing perfumes and tastes of different

cultivars, to obtain a superior product different from the initial ‘ingredients’. This is the art of blending: a fine ability that Italy has perfected for over 100 years, and something that Oleificio Zucchi first chose to enhance, thanks to its R&D laband its Blendmaster in-house team.

What’s the ‘Traceability Project’? Are you planning on other projects next year, especially on the supply chain? Transparency has always been one of our hallmarks. We provide PLs with a product range tracked from field to fork. This provides for extra virgin olive oil, both of 100% Italian supply chain and 100% Italian seed oil. The origin of raw materials can be tracked through the QR code and the lot number on their packaging.

Have you put into place sustainable initiatives in the last five years? Sustainability is one of the key values of our company, even before it became a worldwide trend. Sustainability is to be intended as something well-rounded, definitely not limited to the environment alone, but also as a social, economic and nutritional commitment. In 2017 the company created the first sustainability certificate for extra virgin olive oil. As for the packaging, being the producers of Pet bottles is a great advantage that means we can, for example, use recycled Pet in bottle composition generally intended for seed oils, or make lighter containers with less plastic. Another innovation of Zucchi’s extra virgin olive oil, but also of PL products, is the grass paper label. Thanks to the high percentage of grass in its mixture, we use less cellulose and reduce the impact on trees. As regards the glass packaging, only bottles with bottles with a guaranteed minimum percentage of 70% recycled dark glass are employed, to reduce the use of natural raw materials (including quarry sand extraction) and to increase energy savings at all stages of glass production.l