Spanish and Italian organisations join forces to develop actions in favour of EVOO as flagship product

On the occasion of a meeting held on 20 May in Salerno (Italy), representatives of the Spanish Association of Olive Municipalities (AEMO), the Spanish Association of Olive Mill Masters and Operators (Aemoda), the Italian Farmers' Association (Confragricoltura) and the Italian Association of Olive Oil Mills (Assofrantoi) have drawn up and agreed an alliance manifesto to develop actions in favour of Extra Virgin Olive Oil as the flagship of the international olive oil sector.

As indicated in a note from AEMO, an association presided over by the mayoress of Montoro (Córdoba), Dolores Amo, the manifesto of the alliance between Spain and Italy sets out a series of objectives and actions that these associations intend to develop in favour of the development and prosperity of the olive sector.

Thus, among the objectives are the training of professionals in the sector aimed at obtaining extra virgin olive oils of high organoleptic and healthy quality; to promote measures, in the field and in the industry, to optimise the carbon balance, thus contributing to the mitigation of climate change, and to promote the training of consumers so that they can differentiate the authentic fruit juice, the extra virgin, from other categories.

The alliance also wants to defend the authenticity of olive oil against the marketing of blends with other fats which, in the opinion of this alliance, "should be banned in the European Union". Finally, actions will be established to increase the generation of complementary income for the sector through olive oil tourism or the valorisation of by-products.

In order to achieve these objectives, the parties intend to carry out annual actions such as the translation of existing training and information material into both languages, the organisation of annual training days with the exchange of knowledge throughout the value chain in both countries and the issuing of joint communiqués on current situations affecting the olive oil sector.

In short, this alliance aims to "lay another stone in the edifice of quality and excellence of extra virgin olive oils, and in the promotion and defence of the richest and healthiest of all known fats, the true lifeblood of the Mediterranean diet, EVOO".

The Salerno meeting was organised in close collaboration with Leonardo Feola, Italian agronomist, and Isabel Calvache, manager of Caracol Tour.