`Terroir, Organic Farming Yield Award-Winning Results for Sicilian Farmer - Olive Oil Times
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Terroir, Organic Farming Yield Award-Winning Results for Sicilian Farmer

By Wasim Shahzad
Aug. 19, 2024 16:06 UTC

In the pic­turesque Sicilian region of Agrigento, a for­mer com­mu­ni­ca­tion and event coor­di­na­tion spe­cial­ist is using her tal­ents to advo­cate for small-scale, organic farm­ing in a world where inten­sive olive farm­ing is ris­ing.

“Naru was born from the idea of enhanc­ing a splen­did prop­erty pur­chased by my father more than 20 years ago… who works as a doc­tor but has always had a great pas­sion for nature and the prod­ucts it gives us,” said owner Maria Piscopo.

“I began acquir­ing new lands and plant­ing olive trees, imme­di­ately choos­ing the path of organic farm­ing and sus­tain­abil­ity,” she added.

I’m not inter­ested in large-scale pro­duc­tion because it com­pro­mises qual­ity.- Maria Piscopo, owner, Naru

Since embark­ing on this project in 2016, Piscopo has planted 22 hectares and achieved an annual pro­duc­tion of about 6,000 liters of organic extra vir­gin olive oil.

The company’s olive groves mainly com­prise Biancolilla and Nocellara del Belice olives.

“I chose them because they are typ­i­cal Sicilian olives, native to the region,” she said. ​“Biancolilla pro­duces an aro­matic olive oil that is very del­i­cate and slightly sweet. On the other hand, Nocellara del Belice, typ­i­cal of the Belice Valley in west­ern Sicily, has very fleshy fruit and pro­duces a very intense olive oil.”

See Also:Producer Profiles

“There are approx­i­mately 500 vari­eties of Nocellara, and in my hum­ble opin­ion, the one from Belice has a supe­rior qual­ity com­pared to the oth­ers,” Piscopo added.

The cli­mate and geog­ra­phy of a region are cru­cial in deter­min­ing the qual­ity and healthy attrib­utes of its olives. For Piscopo, Agrigento’s loca­tion 600 meters above sea level in south­ern Sicily is par­tic­u­larly advan­ta­geous.

“Naro, located in the province of Agrigento, enjoys a typ­i­cally Mediterranean cli­mate,” she said. ​“Overlooking the sea, Naro ben­e­fits from the sea breeze at a slightly lower tem­per­a­ture, about four degrees cooler; this con­tributes to giv­ing the olive trees and their fruit a par­tic­u­lar aroma.”

Like any Mediterranean cli­mate, Piscopo said Agrigento has hot, dry sum­mers and mild, wet win­ters.

“The high sum­mer tem­per­a­tures and abun­dant sun­light favor pho­to­syn­the­sis, stim­u­lat­ing the growth of olive trees and the pro­duc­tion of high-qual­ity olives,” she said. ​“The hot and dry cli­mate of Sicilian sum­mers con­tributes to uni­form and healthy fruit ripen­ing, enhanc­ing the organolep­tic char­ac­ter­is­tics of the olives and, con­se­quently, the olive oil pro­duced.”

profiles-the-best-olive-oils-production-europe-terroir-organic-farming-yield-awardwinning-results-for-sicilian-farmer-olive-oil-times

Climate, soil and native olive varieties yield Naru’s award-winning organic blends. (Photo: Naru)

“The absence of high humid­ity dur­ing the sum­mer sig­nif­i­cantly reduces the risk of fun­gal infec­tions and other dis­eases that can affect olive trees, such as olive leaf spot and olive fruit fly,” Piscopo added. ​“The cli­matic con­di­tions of Naro are ideal for the pro­duc­tion of high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oils, with a high polyphe­nol con­tent, which con­tributes to the antiox­i­dant prop­er­ties of the olive oil.”

While Agrigento’s cli­mate is well suited to olive cul­ti­va­tion, Piscopo cited cli­mate change as a sig­nif­i­cant issue, along with the annual chal­lenges of care­ful fer­til­iza­tion and prun­ing to achieve max­i­mum yield and qual­ity.

“Drought is a sig­nif­i­cant issue in Sicily, and it is part of the larger cli­mate change occur­ring,” she said. ​“While there has always been a drought in pre­vi­ous years, it was cer­tainly not at the lev­els we are expe­ri­enc­ing today.”

Still, olives are a resilient crop, and Piscopo’s groves are planted in well-drained soils, which, she said, helps reduce the con­se­quences of drought.

“At higher alti­tudes, atmos­pheric mois­ture is slightly higher than in the sur­round­ing plains,” she said. ​“This helps main­tain higher rel­a­tive humid­ity, thereby reduc­ing evap­o­ra­tion and water con­sump­tion by the trees dur­ing peri­ods of drought.”

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Piscopo believes improv­ing soil health and fol­low­ing sus­tain­able best prac­tices are tools farm­ers can use to coun­ter­act the impacts of cli­mate change.

“Naru focuses on sus­tain­able agri­cul­tural prac­tices pri­or­i­tiz­ing soil health,” she said. ​“This includes using organic fer­til­iz­ers and com­post to enhance soil fer­til­ity nat­u­rally rather than rely­ing on syn­thetic chem­i­cals that can degrade soil qual­ity over time. Maintaining healthy soil ensures that our olive trees receive opti­mal nutri­tion and are less sus­cep­ti­ble to dis­eases and pests.”

“Biodiversity pro­mo­tion is cen­tral to our farm­ing approach, which cre­ates nat­ural habi­tats that sup­port ben­e­fi­cial insects, birds and other wildlife,” Piscopo added. ​“This bio­di­ver­sity helps to main­tain eco­log­i­cal bal­ance, improve pol­li­na­tion rates and remove the need for chem­i­cal inter­ven­tions.”

Timing the har­vest, which has become far more chal­leng­ing in recent years par­tially due to the impacts of cli­mate change, has been another sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge for the pro­ducer.

“Picking the olives at the opti­mal ripeness is cru­cial for pro­duc­ing high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil,” she said. ​“Protecting the prod­uct from oxi­da­tion and light dur­ing stor­age and pack­ag­ing to pre­serve its fresh­ness is para­mount, achieved through reg­u­larly clean­ing essen­tial equip­ment.”

Quality for any award-win­ning olive oil pro­ducer begins with the olive on the tree. From then on, qual­ity can only be reduced dur­ing the har­vest­ing and milling. As a result, Piscopo said har­vest­ing is the most cru­cial step of the process at Naru.

“Harvesting is timed care­fully to ensure olives are picked at the opti­mal stage of ripeness,” she said. ​“This stage varies depend­ing on the desired char­ac­ter­is­tics of the olive oil (e.g., fruity, robust, or mild).”

Piscopo insists on a tra­di­tional har­vest, with olives picked by hand or elec­tric shak­ers to remove them from the tree and trans­port them to the mill quickly but del­i­cately to pre­serve the olives and avoid stress­ing the tree.

profiles-the-best-olive-oils-production-europe-terroir-organic-farming-yield-awardwinning-results-for-sicilian-farmer-olive-oil-times

Quality begins with the olives, so Piscopo pays meticulous attention to the harvest timing and sorting the fruit. (Photo: Naru)

“Operators use nets and then move the olives into very large bins that con­tain olive mats,” she said. ​“After approx­i­mately a cou­ple of hours of work, we imme­di­ately go to the mill to start press­ing (while the rest of the team con­tin­ues har­vest­ing), thus avoid­ing the fer­men­ta­tion of the olives, which would greatly dam­age the qual­ity of the final prod­uct. Therefore, we pro­ceed with har­vest­ing and press­ing about three times daily.”

Milling the olives within hours of the har­vest helps min­i­mize oxi­da­tion and pre­serves the fla­vors and aro­mas of the result­ing oil.

“Modern olive mills often use effi­cient extrac­tion meth­ods, such as cen­trifu­ga­tion, to extract oil while min­i­miz­ing oxi­da­tion,” Piscopo said. ​“Controlling the tem­per­a­ture dur­ing pro­cess­ing is essen­tial to pre­vent degra­da­tion of the oil’s fla­vors and aro­mas. Cold-press­ing meth­ods or pro­cess­ing at con­trolled tem­per­a­tures [below 27 ºC] help retain the oil’s qual­ity.”

“This helps pre­serve the volatile com­pounds and nutri­ents present in the olives, main­tain­ing the oil’s fla­vor, aroma and nutri­tional prop­er­ties,” she added.

Once the extra vir­gin olive oil has been pro­duced, it is stored in stain­less steel tanks and bot­tled on demand.

“The olive oil is never pre-pack­aged,” Piscopo said. ​“Each time a cus­tomer places an order, the cho­sen pack­ag­ing type is filled, and the order is imme­di­ately shipped. This ensures that the fla­vor of the oil remains con­sis­tent through­out the year, pre­serv­ing all its char­ac­ter­is­tics, which would not be pos­si­ble if the oil were pre-pack­aged.”

While Piscopo believes that organic olive oil pro­duc­tion is the eth­i­cally right thing to do, she also thinks it helps her brand stand out.

“I adhere to what nature pro­vides and oppose the use of any fer­til­iz­ers that may increase pro­duc­tion but do not guar­an­tee qual­ity or con­sumer health pro­tec­tion,” she said. ​“I’m not inter­ested in large-scale pro­duc­tion because it com­pro­mises qual­ity.”

“This sin­gle-ori­gin approach ensures trace­abil­ity and authen­tic­ity, allow­ing con­sumers to know exactly where their olive oil comes from,” Piscopo added.

Along with organic pro­duc­tion, Piscopo has embraced her role as a female-led brand in an indus­try still dom­i­nated mainly by men.

profiles-the-best-olive-oils-production-europe-terroir-organic-farming-yield-awardwinning-results-for-sicilian-farmer-olive-oil-times

Maria Piscopo has spent eight years transforming her father’s grove into an award-winning brand. (Photo: Naru)

“Another strong point of my prod­uct is that it is a women-led com­pany,” she said. ​“I have always con­sid­ered this a sig­nif­i­cant strength. Fortunately, many women are in the olive oil indus­try, but I believe there should be more.”

“In my opin­ion, the pres­ence of women in this pre­dom­i­nantly male envi­ron­ment has brought many advan­tages and atten­tion, and it’s some­thing that makes me very proud,” Piscopo added.

Earlier this year, Piscopo’s metic­u­lous efforts paid off when its debut entry to the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the world’s largest olive oil qual­ity con­test, earned a Silver Award.

“Winning the NYIOOC fills me with joy and honor,” she said.”It was immensely sat­is­fy­ing for me to achieve this award. All the sac­ri­fices and improve­ments made by me and my very small team led to this result.”

Along with the agro­nomic aspect, Piscopo said that suc­cess­fully mar­ket­ing in a highly com­pet­i­tive field is also chal­leng­ing, espe­cially for small pro­duc­ers.

“I work to high­light the authen­tic­ity of my prod­uct,” Piscopo said. ​“I have worked hard to estab­lish Naru’s iden­tity with­out any exter­nal assis­tance, ded­i­cat­ing time to con­sumers and cus­tomers, build­ing a net­work of peo­ple who believe in me and Naru every year.”

“From the begin­ning, I aimed for a strong mar­ket posi­tion for my prod­uct, and I believe I have achieved that,” she added. ​“However, I always think there’s room for improve­ment year by year, which has been the case with Naru. I have worked hard to enhance its qual­ity.”

Piscopo added that social media has become a sig­nif­i­cant part of her mar­ket­ing efforts. It allows her to show­case Naru’s prod­ucts and awards while edu­cat­ing con­sumers about cli­mate change and cook­ing with olive oil.

“I’ve also empha­sized his­tory and tra­di­tion,” she said. ​“Through social chan­nels, I try in my small way to edu­cate about cli­mate change and the mea­sures I adopt to limit its effects. I focus on sus­tain­abil­ity and agri­cul­tural prac­tices aimed at con­serv­ing and respect­ing the envi­ron­ment, a cor­ner­stone of my agri­cul­tural busi­ness.”

“I’ve cre­ated col­lab­o­ra­tions and part­ner­ships with peo­ple in the food sec­tor to strengthen the pro­duc­t’s image,” Piscopo added. ​“I’ve opted for direct online sales through the Naru web­site. I par­tic­i­pate in indus­try events and fairs to meet con­sumers directly, let them taste the prod­uct, and tell the story of my still young com­pany.”

Looking to the future, Piscopo said she plans to build a ded­i­cated mill for the com­pany, pro­vid­ing fur­ther con­trol of the pro­duc­tion process and a new head­quar­ters.

“There is an ancient farm­house that I intend to trans­form into the per­ma­nent head­quar­ters of the com­pany,” she said. ​“I aim for this facil­ity to be self-sus­tain­ing and self-suf­fi­cient in terms of water, elec­tric­ity and heat­ing, fully respect­ing the envi­ron­ment and being 100 per­cent eco­log­i­cal.”

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