My wife an I attempted to start an olive oil company last year selling French extra virgin oil we make at our friend's olive farm in Provence.. If you think the artisanal chocolate industry is full of deception and lies.. allow me to introduce to you the wonderful world of olive oil. Our production cost for 1 liter was almost double the retail cost of so-called high-end "Italian" extra virgin olive oil you'd buy at Whole Foods -- which basically means it is nearly impossible to source actual, 100% extra virgin olive oil at the prices they're being sold for at the stores, there are some exceptions -- a few oils out there are actually the real deal. But a high percentage of grocery store oils aren't what they claim to be (even at Whole Foods-type stores.)
Through a quirk of Italian law, oil that is bottled in Italy can be labeled "100% Italian" -- so there is a huge amount of inferior oils being passed off as both Italian and Extra Virgin and being priced accordingly, despite it being nearly impossible to wholesale Italian-grown, Italian made extra virgins at the price they're selling it for. That's even accounting for economies of scale.
My favorite label-scam is when I see "First Cold Pressed." Absolutely zero oil you buy at grocery stores is ever cold pressed. Pressing actually creates inferior oils. Olive oils are extracted in large centrifuges. They haven't been "pressed" in probably a generation, but "First Cold Centrifuging" doesn't sound as "artisanal." Producers know good and well they aren't pressing anything, yet they (correctly) figure that that particular wording is going to attract a customer who imagines images of an old dude dumping fresh olives still moist with dew into a large, wooden handled press to squeeze out oil just for them. Basically your stereotypical hipster-type that wants to opine about the importance of "hand" crafting. I know probably a dozen olive oil producers here in Provence and every single one of them hand-craft their oils using state of the art, stainless steel equipment in spotless production facilities. Some of this facilities are located in a converted barn, but that idyllic image of the "craftsman" using "traditional" methods is just a myth. Though, playing off of those ignorant imaginings means that companies, using the right wording, can charge champagne prices for malt liquor.
I suppose if we just took Tunisia or Turkish oils, bottled them as French oils, put a ultra-premium price on it -- and grew some beards and distributed out of Brooklyn, we might have been more successful.
My point is that the artisanal and premium food business is rife with deception. If anyone is interested in the olive oil industry this book is exceptionally good: http://www.truthinoliveoil.com/extra-virginity