From 15 to 18 March 2019, the Stazione Marittima in Trieste will host the largest exhibition of typical and premium extra-virgin olive oils
Pubblicato il 8 March 2019Friday 1st March saw the presentation of the thirteenth Olio Capitale, the typical and premium extra-virgin oil festival, which will be held at Stazione Marittima in Trieste from 15th to 18th March 2019 with the support of the Ministry for Agricultural, Food, Forestry and Tourism Policies. The event is organised by the Venezia Giulia Chamber of Commerce and implemented by Aries– in cooperation with Associazione Nazionale Città dell’Olio (which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2019) and Turismo FVG, and under the sponsorship of Despar Interspar Eurospar and Crédit Agricole Friuladria.
«Also this year, Olio Capitale will be the beating heart of the Italian oil sector, as well as the reference for all the Italian olive-growers. The most important sector exhibition and the first to unveil the final results of the latest harvest season to the experts in the field and premium extra-virgin olive oil lovers alike – said Antonio Paoletti, President of the Venezia Giulia Chamber of Commerce – In addition, for the first time in its history, this year the exhibition will last four full days, from 10am to 7pm. – We hope that, in the near future, Olio Capitale will be hosted by the brand new exhibition facilities in the Old Port – he added.»
«Major events like Olio Capitale contribute to the growth of the attractiveness of our city, which has been reporting a constantly growing number of incoming tourists – highlighted Elisa Lodi, Councillor of the Municipality of Trieste. As a local government, we are implementing several redevelopment projects in the city which are aimed at attracting new investors too.»
The promotion of extra-virgin olive oil and the territory as a whole was the focus of Friuli Venezia Giulia’s National Councillor of Associazione Nazionale Città dell’Olio Antonio Ghersinich, an Olio Capitale partner: «For 25 years we have been organising initiatives of this type such as “Girolio,” “Camminata tra gli olivi” and promoting training programmes for schools. We want the olive-growing culture to spread across Italy. At the same time, we campaign to support growers in making fair profits and for extra-virgin olive oil to be sold at a fair price.»
At Olio Capitale, the new extra-virgin olive oil to be tasted in Trieste will come from almost all the Italian regions: Abruzzo, Calabria, Campania, Emilia Romagna, Friuli Venezia Giulia, Lazio, Liguria, Lombardy, Marche, Molise, Apulia, Sardinia, Sicily, Tuscany and Umbria. Also the presence of oils from Greece, Croatia and Slovenia has been confirmed.
As of today – Friday 1st March – almost 200 growers and producers have confirmed their presence, but many more will be added over the next few days. Indeed, the municipalities participating in Olio Capitale are still selecting the farms and enterprises which will participate in the collective exhibitions.
On the other hand, there are 231 extra-virgin olive oils which will compete for the 2019 Olio Capitale Prize. The competition will see the participation of high-quality products coming—as usual—from Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, Greece, Spain and Portugal and — for the first time — Morocco. The number of applications is incredibly high considering that in 2018 the bad weather hit the most important olive-growing Italian regions, causing a dramatic drop in production.
The competition winners will be announced on the second day of Olio Capitale, Saturday 16th March, at 11am. The event – a true show for insiders and “green gold” lovers – will be hosted by agronomist and communication specialist Giorgio Pace.
Also this year the extra-virgin olive oil culture will be promoted by the Oil Bar, where customers will be able to sit down and taste olive oils chosen from among the hundreds of labels participating in the expo.
During the non-stop opening hours, all visitors—experts and non-experts alike—will be able to participate in guided tastings under the supervision of professional oil tasters. Another novelty introduced this year is the division of the labels into “Monocultivars” (light/medium/intense) and “Blends” (light/medium/intense) to allow everyone to grasp at best the characteristics of the various products featured at 2019 Olio Capitale.
Sunday 17th March will be marked by a new delicious event. From 10.30am to 11.30am there will be two tasting sessions devoted to the combination of extra-virgin olive oil with chocolate, explained by Giuseppe Faggiotto, renowned Peratoner maitre chocolatier. Olio Capitale visitors will be able to taste Peratoner’s vegan spreadable cream, prepared on the spot with extra-virgin olive oil and hazelnuts, as well as a “stellar” truffle prepared with Parovel-branded evo oil. Finally, the new “Olio Capitale” chocolates, a recipe specially made for this year’s festival, will be given to visitors during the event. «We are devising other special creations to surprise the visitors» added Faggiotto.
Olio Capitale’s programme was presented in detail by Patrizia Andolfatto, Aries Director. In addition to the usual guided tastings of extra-virgin olive oil – this year twice as many – the programme will add a few thematic focus-on sessions, starting from the opening conference scheduled on Friday 15th March at 10.30am, entitled “Extra-virgin olive oil, a cultural and touristic resource.” Still on Friday, at 2.30pm, there will be another conference entitled “Olive oil: past, present and future of the prince of the Mediterranean diet.”
On the next day, Saturday 16th March, at 3pm, the festival will host a technical conference devoted to the irreplaceable figure of the oil-miller, entitled “The role of oil-mills in the quantity of oil” under the sponsorship of Accademia Nazionale dell’Olivo e dell’Olio.
The final day of Olio Capitale, Monday 18th March, will be devoted to the world of restaurants and catering services. At 10.30am there will be a talk show entitled “The restaurant business 4.0 – new scenarios among quality and sustainability” curated by Federazione italiana pubblici esercizi (Fipe) and Associazione Nazionale Città dell’Olio. Roberto Calugi, Fipe General Director and Paolo Massobrio, food and wine journalist, as well as a few renowned restaurant owners, will be the stars of the event.
Still on Monday, there will be another extraordinary event: the Alpe Adria finest restaurants representatives and chefs will subscribe the first “Extra-virgin olive oil Manifesto” at Olio Capitale. At 2.30pm the programme will see a debate among the most renowned chefs of the association Jeunes Restaurateurs d’Europe and olive oil producers, in order to define the guidelines of a roadmap which is going to involve all the operators to reach a targeted production method, while confirming one of the pillars of the manifestos: extra-virgin olive oil is an ingredient and not only a condiment.
As food and wine journalist Giuseppe Cordioli recalled, «the Croatian Jre President Teo Fernetich, and the Slovenian Jre President Uroš Fakuč, as well as Alberto Tonizzo representing Friuli Venezia Giulia will reach Trieste to subscribe the manifesto and to participate in the debate, organised by Emanuele Scarello (2 Michelin stars) of the restaurant Agli Amici di Godia, former Italian President of the association Jeunes Restaurateurs d’Europe. They will be joined by Paolo Zoppolatti, well-known for his participations in the TV show “Prova del Cuoco.” It is a very important initiative, unparalleled at the international level – said Cordioli – especially because it stresses the importance of the use of quality extra-virgin olive oils in catering services.» «Today it is essential to talk about the quality of extra-virgin olive oils in this sector, especially if we are to improve our attractiveness in terms of tourism» – added Silvano Lamacchia, Fipe Trieste Vice President.
«There are more than 800,000 olive-growing enterprises in our country and the overall Italian oil business has an estimated turnover of approximately €4 billion per year – specified Andrea Ceccato, Agri-food Manager of Crédit Agricole FriulAdria, an Olio Capitale sponsor. It is a strategic sector for Italy, but also for our institution which—for the second year in a row—decided to support the festival which will take place at Stazione Marittima from 15th to 18th March. We have developed new solutions for farmers, too. Indeed, in collaboration with our holding company, FriulAdria has developed the Agriadvisor application, which is aimed at performing an analysis of the short-term and medium/long-term financial needs of farming enterprises and simulating financial support solutions to be proposed within a personalised consultancy service.»
«We are very happy to be supporting initiatives like Olio Capitale, which are able to promote the heritage of our country – said Fabio Donà, Marketing Director of Aspiag-Despar, another Olio Capitale sponsor. We want to increase the food and wine culture of our customers, offering premium quality products. Large retailers should not only sell low-cost olive oils on offer, they should also support the top quality products of our territory. This is a policy we want to pursue, especially because of the economic benefits it can provide.»
