Lauro's Olive Oil Contest Moves to Salerno

The EVO International Olive Oil Contest was pre­sented dur­ing a press con­fer­ence at the National Archaeological Museum of Paestum, and now pro­duc­ers can sign up to the third edi­tion of the com­pe­ti­tion con­ceived and directed by the renowned taster Antonio G. Lauro.

EVO-IOOC, orga­nized by Lauro and VINAR SA Argentina, with the col­lab­o­ra­tion of the asso­ci­a­tion Oleum and Voglia di Viaggiare Eventi, will cul­mi­nate in a series of events lead­ing up to an award cer­e­mony which will take place in Capaccio Paestum, in the province of Salerno, May 14 – 19 2018.

“EVO is not only an Italian acronym to des­ig­nate the extra vir­gin olive oil, but more impor­tantly on this occa­sion it stands for evo­lu­tion,” said the pres­i­dent of the con­test. ​“The event evolved, and we moved from Sicily to Campania, while enhanc­ing the man­age­ment and enrich­ing the pro­gram,” pointed out Lauro who, after the suc­cess of the first two edi­tions of the D‑IOOC, brought his com­pe­ti­tion’s for­mat to the olive-grow­ing ter­ri­tory of Cilento.

The EVO-IOOC is final­iz­ing its agenda which will include hap­pen­ings both on-site and at an inter­na­tional level, orga­niz­ers said. ​“We already planned activ­i­ties such as ​‘EVO Kids’ and ​‘EVO Teen’ ded­i­cated to chil­dren and teenagers, work­shops for pro­duc­ers, and tourist activ­i­ties that will be con­ducted in arche­o­log­i­cal sites,” Lauro pointed out, men­tion­ing that in Paestum there are three of the most well-pre­served ancient Greek tem­ples. He antic­i­pated that the clos­ing cer­e­mony will take place in a still-secret sug­ges­tive loca­tion.

“We received the appre­ci­a­tion of Italian and inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions which now become insti­tu­tional and tech­ni­cal part­ners of the event,” said Lauro, spec­i­fy­ing that orga­niz­ing the com­pe­ti­tion in the town of Capaccio Paestum was pos­si­ble thanks to the will­ing­ness of local insti­tu­tions.

“The city coun­cil imme­di­ately agreed to be a part­ner of the project. Mayor, Franco Palumbo and deputy mayor, Teresa Palmieri, who are both olive-grow­ers, expressed their enthu­si­asm in sup­port­ing this com­pe­ti­tion as a vehi­cle for pro­mot­ing high-qual­ity pro­duc­tions of the ter­ri­tory, boost­ing the sup­ply chain and improv­ing the edu­ca­tion of young peo­ple,” Lauro affirmed.

Extra vir­gin olive oils from around the world will be assessed by an inter­na­tional panel. Twenty pro­fes­sional tasters will choose the best prod­ucts of sev­eral cat­e­gories includ­ing, organic, mono­va­ri­etal, blend, an ​“International Award” and PDOs/PGIs, the first four being sub­di­vided into Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere. Also, gold and sil­ver medals will be awarded and a spe­cial prize will go to the best EVOO from Campania.

“The work of the panel will be sum­ma­rized in a buy­ers guide, which will illus­trate the sen­sory pro­files of the win­ning extra vir­gin olive oils, and will be pre­sented at inter­na­tional fairs and events, includ­ing ACCIGusto in Tokyo, where we will launch the Japanese ver­sion,” said the man­ag­ing direc­tor, Stefania Reggio.

“We want to give vis­i­bil­ity to pro­duc­ers with a con­test founded on the pro­fes­sion­al­ism of the staff and the expe­ri­ence of judges. The com­pe­ti­tion evolved also through the orga­ni­za­tion of inter­est­ing and use­ful sem­i­nars,” she explained, refer­ring to a work­shop on web mar­ket­ing and a talk that will be given by the law firm Barzanò & Zanardo on the impor­tance of intel­lec­tual prop­erty and what it means to reg­is­ter a trade­mark.

“We set up tast­ing ses­sions and already sched­uled an event with our spon­sor Alfa Pizza to talk about the main ele­ments of the Mediterranean diet like flour, moz­zarella, tomato and extra vir­gin olive oil,” Reggio revealed. ​“Other events will be con­firmed in the com­ing days. Several activ­i­ties will be ded­i­cated to pro­duc­ers and even more to con­sumers.”

Olive oil pro­duc­ers can reg­is­ter for the EVO-IOOC on the orga­ni­za­tion’s web­site.

• EVO-IOOC