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Paper short abstract

An examination of how quantification and new valorization metrics institutionalize assetization in Greece's olive oil sector, marginalizing experiential and sensory knowledge while reorganizing value within agri-food systems through health claims and environmental indicators.

Paper long abstract

Contemporary efforts to transform food systems rely heavily on quantification, with numbers promising to make food qualities measurable, comparable and governable (Bowker & Star, 1999). Beyond simply describing food systems, quantification participates in reconfiguring standardized valorization processes based on technoscience, but it also constructs new ontologies that reconceptualize agrifood products not as mere commodities but as assets (Birch & Muniesa, 2020). This paper examines the institutionalization of metrics in the olive oil sector in Greece and how this process of new valorization metrics transforms certain product qualities into measurable assets. Drawing on interviews with scientists, producers and institutional actors, as well as analysis of regulatory frameworks and certification practices in Greece, the paper traces the emergence of numerical thresholds and laboratory indicators in two domains: health claims and environmental metrics. As these indicators become institutionalized through regulation, certification schemes and market communication, they enable particular attributes of olive oil to circulate as standardized and comparable values. The paper argues that these metrics actively and ontologically transform olive oil by turning specific qualities into assets that can be mobilized in markets, policy frameworks and innovation strategies. In this process, other forms of knowledge and valuation, such as sensory assessment, experiential knowledge and tacit understandings of quality, are reconfigured or marginalized, while the prioritization of certain measurable qualities may undermine other product characteristics. Quantification therefore operates not only as a tool of measurement but as a mechanism of assetization that reorganizes value within agri-food systems.