‘Olio Lucano’ from Basilicata Set for PGI

The Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) Olio Lucano, reserved for extra vir­gin olive oil pro­duced in the Italian south­ern region of Basilicata, also known as Lucania, has been reg­is­tered and pub­lished in the Official Journal of the European Union.

In three months, if there is no oppo­si­tion, the European Union will pub­lish the reg­is­tra­tion reg­u­la­tion which will enti­tle Lucanian pro­duc­ers to use the IGP Olio Lucano mark for their pro­duc­tions. In the mean­time, the IGP Olio Lucano Consortium will be able to use the qual­ity mark on a pro­vi­sional basis with the approval of the Agriculture Ministry.

Extra vir­gin olive oils bear­ing the PGI must be made from at least one of about thirty olive vari­eties grown in the region:

Acerenza, Ogliarola del Vulture, Ogliarola del Bradano, Maiatica, Nociara, Ghiannara, Augellina, Justa, Cornacchiola, Romanella, Carpinegna, Faresana, Sammartinengna, Spinoso, Cannellina, Cima di Melfi, Fasolina, Fasolona, Lardaia, Olivo da mensa, Orazio, Palmarola, Provenzale, Racioppa, Roma, Rotondella, Russulella, Scarpetta, Tarantina, Coratina, Frantoio and Leccino.

No more than 20 per­cent can be com­prised of other vari­eties. All stages of the PGI pro­duc­tion process, namely, cul­ti­va­tion, har­vest­ing, and extrac­tion, must take place within the Lucanian ter­ri­tory.

“This is a very impor­tant recog­ni­tion and we look for­ward to the defin­i­tive pub­li­ca­tion,” the pres­i­dent of Basilicata’s pro­ducer orga­ni­za­tions, Claudio Cufino told Olive Oil Times. ​“We estab­lished our asso­ci­a­tion in the run-up to the PGI, which rep­re­sents only the for­mal part of the qual­ity path taken by the Lucanian pro­duc­ers over the last years.”

“This mark of ori­gin is not a point of arrival but a start­ing point, the begin­ning of a series of actions that will strengthen the pro­tec­tion and pro­mo­tion of our prod­uct in our coun­try and world­wide. Moreover, the good out­come of the last cam­paign – in the 2019/20 crop year, the regional olive oil pro­duc­tion more than quadru­pled com­pared to the pre­vi­ous one – fires us with enthu­si­asm as we start a new sea­son in the sign of qual­ity.”