Comment by kochb
7 days ago
The exact growing conditions for olive production aren’t common in the US, so most of the production comes from California - west of Sacramento and south along the San Joaquin river. There are a lot of barriers in bringing specialty crops to market related to know-how and contracting sale of product, so even in other areas where growth may be possible it may be infeasible.
I mean if you could make olive oil cheaper in America wouldn't someone have done that by now?
The US never lacked for smart entrepreneurs looking for a business opportunity. See wine.
Most likely the answer in many such examples is it needs cheap human labor. US seldom lacks anything in terms of natural resources and always comes down to this.
So basically all you need to do is pay Americans less... Sounds like a race to the bottom.
In Italy it is not Italians who work in agriculture they also have (illegal) migrants.