Family-Run Olive Oil Business Thrives in Central Italy

Summary

Alfredo Agostini estab­lished a small olive press in Petritoli 80 years ago, which has now evolved into Frantoio Agostini run by his sons and nephews, export­ing olive oil to over 15 coun­tries. The fam­ily busi­ness focuses on main­tain­ing tra­di­tional olive groves, espe­cially the del­i­cate Ascolana Tenera vari­ety, while adapt­ing to mod­ern tech­nolo­gies to address chal­lenges posed by cli­mate change and expand­ing their mar­ket glob­ally.

Eighty years ago, Alfredo Agostini estab­lished a small olive press in Petritoli, a pic­turesque vil­lage nes­tled between the Sibillini Mountains and the Adriatic Sea, in the cen­tral Italian region of Le Marche. 

As the enthu­si­asm at the end of World War II fueled a wave of social and eco­nomic devel­op­ment across the coun­try, he man­aged to build up a thriv­ing local busi­ness with hard work and ded­i­ca­tion.

Today, his sons and nephews run Frantoio Agostini, which is equipped with the most advanced tech­nol­ogy and exports extra vir­gin olive oil to more than 15 coun­tries. 

When we were kids, (my brother and I) har­vested olives while wear­ing down jack­ets. Today, our chil­dren pick the fruits in t‑shirts.- Elia Agostini, export man­ager, Frantoio Agostini

Besides the facil­ity sit­u­ated near Fermo, the fam­ily com­pany over­sees about 30,000 olive trees in Ancona. 

The fruit of these orchards is care­fully crafted into award-win­ning blends and mono­va­ri­etals, includ­ing Sublìmis and Ascolana Tenera, each of which earned a Gold Award at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

“Part of our groves over­look the sea, while another por­tion extends inland, and almost all of them retain a tra­di­tional plant­ing pat­tern,” Elia Agostini told Olive Oil Times. ​“We have cho­sen to main­tain their orig­i­nal, exten­sive lay­out for var­i­ous rea­sons.”

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“Not only does it seem more suit­able for this ter­rain, but it also allows us to save water,” he added. ​“Moreover, the land­scape pro­file has been shaped by these orchards, which char­ac­ter­ize the ter­ri­tory. This holds a fun­da­men­tal value for us, and we strive to express it through our prod­ucts.”

The olive groves fea­ture vari­eties wide­spread in cen­tral Italy, such as Frantoio and Leccino, as well as oth­ers native to Marche, includ­ing Raggia and Ascolana Tenera.

“Ascolana is a very del­i­cate fruit that can be found only in small quan­ti­ties, with high pro­duc­tion costs,” Agostini said.” Its cul­ti­va­tion requires extra effort, but we con­tinue to work with it, as we believe that it is one of the max­i­mum expres­sions of the olive grow­ing of this region, and we con­sider it our sig­na­ture fea­ture.”

Agostini, who is in charge of the company’s exports, works along­side his brother, Marco, the company’s plant man­ager, and his uncle, Maurizio, the company’s con­tact per­son for cater­ing. His father, Gaetano, also known as Ugo, is the super­vi­sor and pro­duc­tion man­ager.

Frantoio Agostini oversees 30,000 olive trees in Ancona. (Photo: Frantoio Agostini)

“My father was born in the nearby ham­let of Ortezzano, where my grand­fa­ther relo­cated the mill for a period, and where we still own a his­toric olive grove,” Agostini said. ​“Then, they returned to Petritoli.” 

In the 1990s, Agostini’s par­ents and uncle took the reins of the com­pany and made the great leap for­ward towards the mod­ern milling sys­tem. They scrapped presses and press­ing mats, switch­ing to con­tin­u­ous cycle tech­nol­ogy. 

“The ini­tia­tive was taken by my father, who had sensed that olive grow­ing was poised to take a new direc­tion and there was a need for deep mod­ern­iza­tion,” Agostini stressed.

Their mill has been con­tin­u­ously updated over time with the lat­est tech­nolo­gies. This year, to cel­e­brate its eight­i­eth anniver­sary, it will undergo ren­o­va­tion to main­tain high-qual­ity stan­dards and address the chal­lenges posed by cli­mate change. 

“Olive grow­ing has changed sig­nif­i­cantly in recent years, and in our opin­ion, it is unde­ni­able that there has been a sharp increase in tem­per­a­tures due to cli­mate change,” Agostini said. ​“When we were kids, [my brother and I] har­vested olives while wear­ing down jack­ets. Today, our chil­dren pick the fruits in t‑shirts, and we must use air con­di­tion­ing in the facil­i­ties.”

“We adopted the lat­est gen­er­a­tion machin­ery that can work by low­er­ing the tem­per­a­ture of the olives dur­ing each phase of pro­duc­tion,” he explained. ​“We stud­ied this sys­tem with spe­cial­ized tech­ni­cians from Pieralisi. As we have done so far, we con­tinue to work with this com­pany from Marche, which is a world leader in the pro­duc­tion of milling equip­ment, and this fur­ther reflects our bond with the ter­ri­tory.”

The upcom­ing olive oil cam­paign will be launched with the open­ing of the new mill. The har­vest typ­i­cally begins in the last week of September with Ascolana Tenera, an early-ripen­ing vari­ety.

“From Ascolana, we obtain an extra vir­gin olive oil with a cap­ti­vat­ing scent of tomato leaves and grass and a great bal­ance between nose and palate. Our cus­tomers much appre­ci­ate its per­fumes and har­mony,” Agostini said. 

“This vari­ety needs to be closely mon­i­tored, as it can be prone to attacks by the olive fruit fly, since it has a very high pulp-stone ratio,” he added. ​“This char­ac­ter­is­tic also leads to low yield, with a seven-per­cent aver­age that can reach up to nine per­cent in opti­mal sea­sons.”

Frantoio Agostini’s olive groves overlook the Adriatic Sea in the central Italian region of Le Marche. (Photo: Frantoio Agostini)

Over the last seven years, the com­pany has increased its pro­duc­tion by acquir­ing addi­tional land on hilly ter­rain fur­ther north in the region.

“Since most of our groves are organ­i­cally man­aged, we decided to head north and to higher alti­tudes, which allow us to avoid some issues, such as the fly attacks,” Agostini said. ​“We strongly believe and con­tinue to invest in the olive grow­ing of the Marche region.” 

“Over the past years, we have actively pro­moted this region and its oils around the world with many projects,” he added. ​“We have truly worked to show­case this region glob­ally, but I have to say that this region has done the same with us.” 

Agostini’s pas­sion for his work shines through when he speaks about his land and extra vir­gin olive oils. And yet, until some years ago, his pro­fes­sional and life jour­ney could have taken a dif­fer­ent direc­tion.

Having earned a degree in law and a mas­ter’s degree in tax law, he then pur­sued a fruit­ful intern­ship, after which he applied to sev­eral com­pa­nies. While await­ing responses from the firms, he came back home, and one day his father asked for his assis­tance in reply­ing to some com­pany emails.

“I remem­ber the con­ver­sa­tions with my friends about what to do after uni­ver­sity, some years back. I was cer­tain that I would not come back here, because at that time I did not see any future in this job,” he said. ​“Nonetheless, dur­ing those days, work­ing with my dad, I real­ized that many things had changed in the food sec­tor. Consumers showed aware­ness and an ever-increas­ing inter­est in high qual­ity, and I saw great poten­tial. I didn’t know whether to stay or leave.”

“Then, I talked with my brother, who already worked in the com­pany, and that was a turn­ing point. We shared our views, and that exchange kept me up at night,” Agostini revealed. ​“Our grand­par­ents worked so hard and made sac­ri­fices to cre­ate what is now our com­pany, and the whole fam­ily put in so much effort. If I had taken a dif­fer­ent path, what would have hap­pened to all of that? I decided to stay, and it was the best choice I could make. Today, I believe that oil is one of the most fas­ci­nat­ing prod­ucts that agri­cul­ture gives us.”

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Agostini believes that a fam­ily busi­ness has a pecu­liar entre­pre­neur­ial strength. He observed that, on the one hand, it can be more chal­leng­ing to man­age due to the emo­tions involved; on the other hand, it cre­ates the con­di­tions for inter­gen­er­a­tional invest­ments. 

“To give an exam­ple, when you plant a tra­di­tional olive grove, just like we did a few years ago, you know that the trees will come into pro­duc­tion in ten years,” he said. ​“As a fam­ily com­pany, we found moti­va­tion to invest in such a long-term plan. In my opin­ion, this is a key asset for a busi­ness like ours.” 

The com­pany exports its extra vir­gin olive oils to 18 coun­tries, and its mar­ket is grow­ing steadily. Currently, the largest vol­umes are sold in Germany, Croatia and the Netherlands. Excellent growth rates are recorded in Japan, Canada, Mexico and the United States, as well as in Romania, Lithuania, Finland and South Korea. 

“Working with for­eign mar­kets is so enrich­ing,” Agostini said. ​“As an export man­ager, I try to under­stand how this prod­uct, which is so deeply rooted in our cul­ture, can be expressed from dif­fer­ent per­spec­tives.”

“We have cho­sen to work with inter­na­tional part­ners who want to bring our ter­ri­tory to their coun­try, and we are doing this with our two most rep­re­sen­ta­tive prod­ucts, namely the Marche PGI and the mono­va­ri­etal Ascolana Tenera,” Agostini added. 

“Three years ago, while I was prepar­ing the first order we received from a coun­try that now is one of our estab­lished mar­ket, I couldn’t help but won­der what grandpa would say about the fact that our extra vir­gin olive oils are on so many tables and in so many kitchens around the world and if he would be proud of us all,” he con­cluded.