Festival to Celebrate Mediterranean Tastes, EVOO in Cilento

From May 4^th to 6^th, the Castle of Rocca Cilento in the province of Salerno will host the first edi­tion of the Olivitalymed fes­ti­val, ded­i­cated to extra vir­gin olive oil and Mediterranean tastes.

The charm­ing build­ing dates back to the end of the ninth cen­tury and offers spec­tac­u­lar views of the Alento River val­ley. It will host a com­plete pro­gram of tast­ings, mas­ter­classes and con­fer­ences on health, tourism, cater­ing and the indus­try’s future.

Attendees will have the oppor­tu­nity to taste some of the best Italian extra vir­gin olive oils, paired with other pre­mium agri-food prod­ucts, includ­ing bread, veg­eta­bles, seafood and desserts, includ­ing gelato, accom­pa­nied by cock­tails.

Furthermore, pro­duc­ers can meet buy­ers from dif­fer­ent coun­tries.

The three-day event came to fruition due to the col­lab­o­ra­tion between local insti­tu­tions and lead­ing indus­try orga­ni­za­tions.

In the press release issued to mark its launch, the orga­niz­ers announced the pres­ence of many key play­ers in the sec­tor. Given the pro­jec­t’s high pro­file, they empha­sized that Olivitalymed aspires to become a ref­er­ence event for experts and enthu­si­asts who want an all-around sen­sory expe­ri­ence.

“Olivitalymed has the ambi­tion to be an event capa­ble of gath­er­ing pro­duc­tions and peo­ple who make extra vir­gin olive oil great,” said the Sgueglia fam­ily, the venue’s owner and orga­nizer. ​“It is a sort of hub capa­ble of sat­is­fy­ing the needs of experts with­out for­get­ting to offer this pre­cious prod­uct to enthu­si­asts and begin­ners.”

“For us and all our col­lab­o­ra­tors, it also rep­re­sents the oppor­tu­nity to real­ize the dream of the head of our fam­ily, Stefano, who recently passed away,” they added. ​“He is the true cre­ator of this event, which takes place in Cilento, the birth­place of the Mediterranean diet.”

In this scenic cor­ner of Campania, Ancel Keys con­ducted his research and, with the Seven Countries Study, laid the foun­da­tions of the Mediterranean diet.

Representatives of the Mediterranean Diet Emblematic Communities will attend the event. The task force is com­prised of the seven com­mu­ni­ties of Brač and Hvar in Croatia; Agros in Cyprus; Koroni in Greece; Chefchaouen in Morocco; Tavira in Portugal; Soria in Spain; and the coor­di­na­tor of the group, Pollica in Italy, which sup­port and pro­mote the Mediterranean diet, rec­og­nized on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage list.

“It is impor­tant for us to con­tribute to the first edi­tion of this event, and we are eager to con­tinue work­ing with Olivitalymed,” Stefano Pisani, the mayor of Pollica, told Olive Oil Times. ​“It is an ideal place to dis­cuss the future of extra vir­gin olive oil, a sta­ple of the Mediterranean diet, and how we can sup­port the areas where the olive tree is present and must be pro­tected.”

“In our last meet­ing, we talked about the impact of cli­mate change on the extra vir­gin olive oil and what actions need to be taken in the cur­rent con­text to carry out the olive tree cul­ti­va­tion in the emblem­atic com­mu­ni­ties,” he added. ​“Besides con­sid­er­ing the qual­ity and use­ful­ness of the extra vir­gin olive oil, it is now fun­da­men­tal to ana­lyze this aspect because the Mediterranean diet also has an intrin­sic envi­ron­men­tal value to be safe­guarded, rep­re­sent­ing a true model.”

“We imag­ine Olivitalymed as a round table with the var­i­ous stake­hold­ers, includ­ing insti­tu­tions, com­pa­nies, con­sumer asso­ci­a­tions and health bod­ies, where we can dis­cuss and take action on the cur­rent chal­lenges and the future of extra vir­gin olive oil,” Pisani con­cluded.

The event website has infor­ma­tion on the pro­gram.