New Consortium to Promote Terre Aurunche PDO

Olive oil pro­duc­ers in Caserta, a province in the Campania region of south­ern Italy, have joined forces in the cre­ation of a con­sor­tium to pro­mote the Terre Aurunche PDO, one of the coun­try’s most dis­tin­guished geo­graph­i­cal indi­ca­tions.

“In one of the most dif­fi­cult times for the extra vir­gin olive oil mar­ket, with a dif­fi­cult sea­son ahead, we felt the need as entre­pre­neurs to unite and bet­ter pro­tect and enhance our olive oil,” said Margherita Ceparano, the newly-nom­i­nated pres­i­dent of the Consorzio di Tutela Terra Aurunche PDO.

The Protected Designation of Origin cer­ti­fi­ca­tion was awarded by the European Union to the locally-pro­duced extra vir­gin olive oil back in 2011, with the first cer­ti­fied har­vest in 2014.

According to Ceparano, the con­sor­tium is needed to stan­dard­ize the pro­duc­tion of Terre Aurunche PDO olive oil and help local pro­duc­ers focus on qual­ity, while more strongly link­ing the prod­uct with the region.

The con­sor­tium will include 6,000 hectares (more than 14,800 acres) of olive groves in the province. According to the esti­mates of the Campania regional author­i­ties, the 15 main farm­ers of the Terre Aurunche PDO pro­duce a lit­tle bit more than 18,000 quin­tals (almost 2,000 tons) of the oil each year.

In order to be labeled Terre Aurunche PDO, the extra vir­gin olive oil must be pro­duced with at least 70 per­cent of olives from the Sessana cul­ti­var. The cul­ti­var name is derived from the town of Sessa Aurunca, the largest munic­i­pal­ity in the area.

The remain­ing olive oil must come from the Corniola, Itrana and Tonacella cul­ti­vars, which are all ancient olive vari­eties of the region.

As a result of the mild cli­mate, vol­canic soil and the spe­cific char­ac­ter­is­tics of the Sessana cul­ti­var, the free acid­ity of the extra vir­gin olive oil is less than 0.6 per­cent and it is renowned for its polyphe­nol con­tent and its bit­ter and piquant taste.

The Terre Aurunche PDO pro­duc­ing area spreads in the vicin­ity of the extinct vol­cano Roccamonfina, among the munic­i­pal­i­ties of Caianello, Carinola, Cellole, Conca della Campania, Falciano del Massico, Francolise, Galluccio, Marzano Appio, Mignano Monte Lungo, Mondragone, Rocca D’Evandro, Roccamonfina, San Pietro, Sessa Aurunca, Sparanise, Teano and Tora e Piccilli.

• Campanian Ministry of Agriculture
• Campanian Ministry of Agriculture
• Informacibo