`Women of the Olive Oil World Make Themselves Heard - Olive Oil Times
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enEnglishfrFrançaiselελληνικάdeDeutscheitItalianozh-CN中文ptPortuguêsesEspañoltrTürkçehrHrvatskija日本語hiहिंदी

Women of the Olive Oil World Make Themselves Heard

By Laura Rose
Apr. 10, 2011 18:55 UTC

Le Donne dell’olio are more than just the female par­tic­i­pants from the sec­tor of olive oil, they’re a group of ded­i­cated entre­pre­neurs, farm­ers, pro­duc­ers, mer­chants, researchers, and experts who are seek­ing sol­i­dar­ity in the male-dom­i­nated busi­ness cul­ture of Italy, and pro­mot­ing prin­ci­ples of qual­ity olive oil pro­duc­tion.

Founded in 2000, it is the first asso­ci­a­tion of its kind, born in a time when the ​“Designation of Origin” label was first being intro­duced in Italy, when atten­tion to the integrity of olive oil was mount­ing in the coun­try and abroad.

Olio Capitale marked the relaunch of the group, with a clear set of pro­pos­als for the pro­fes­sional mar­ket which will serve to strengthen the reli­a­bil­ity of extra vir­gin olive oil as a prod­uct. With a stand dis­trib­ut­ing infor­ma­tion about the group and its mem­bers, and a con­fer­ence on March 20 that was open to all, the group made its pres­ence and it goals known.

Laura Turri is the pres­i­dent of the asso­ci­a­tion, as well as a pro­ducer and owner of a fam­ily olive oil oper­a­tion. Ms. Turri said the group’s prin­ci­pals are defined pre­cisely to com­bat ​“this lack of con­vic­tion and faith that is run­ning through the indus­try, in a time rife with con­tra­dic­tions, when the high­est qual­ity prod­ucts are not get­ting their proper place in the mar­ket.”

Based in Cavaion Veronese on Lake Garda, the asso­ci­a­tion has mem­bers through­out the whole of Italy, with a rapidly expand­ing base. A new web­site will empha­size com­mu­ni­ca­tion between pro­fes­sion­als to share expe­ri­ences and ideas among its mem­bers. Participation in trade fairs con­tin­ues to grow, as do cre­ative meth­ods of pre­sent­ing their objec­tives. One of the ways the group pro­motes atten­tion to qual­ity is by giv­ing tast­ings, includ­ing bring­ing sam­ples to schools and intro­duc­ing chil­dren and school offi­cials to the deli­cious taste of well-crafted extra vir­gin olive oil.

For the first time, a key role in the indus­try, the pres­i­dent of the group Olive Oil Professionals, is held by a woman, Pina Romano. Le Donne dell’Olio is poised to take on an impor­tant role in the indus­try because they have a grow­ing base of women in the pro­fes­sional world, and they are using this base to revi­tal­ize the com­mit­ment to high qual­ity stan­dards of olive oil pro­duc­tion.

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