A tour on Facebook and you quickly discover how the olive-oil sector is particularly social. In fact, there are dozens and dozens of groups linked in one way or another to the olive tree, to the manufacturing processes in the field or in the mill, to extra virgin olive oil, to the product market or even to its tools and machinery . Clear sign of a sector where the many subjects are pleased to share experiences, methodologies, actions, interventions, thoughts and everything that the social world is able to offer.
The Olive News, which by definition and editorial choice deals with everything that olive growing expresses, could not remain indifferent to this phenomenon. And to begin to investigate it, understand its functioning but also orientations and curiosities, he could only turn to the group that currently has the largest number of members: Italian olive growing, who travels with over 57 thousand followers, a real record.
Mark Leo (in the picture), a career in the Air Force up to the deserved retirement shared with the passion of the olive tree, is thegroup administrator. With him, therefore, let's try to enter this social-olive reality.
A first more than obvious question: how did Olivicoltura Italiana come about?
“It was born almost as a game between a group of friends from Villacidro, a town 50 kilometers from Cagliari, now confined to the new province of South Sardinia. Together with Maurizio Pero, his brother Antonio, Nicola Solinas, Luciano Muscas, Claudio Ciotti and Giovanni Nurchis, with whom we exchanged thoughts and advice on olive growing, we decided to expand this sharing by creating a social group to host other experts and professionals of the sector. It was 2014 and we never thought we'd get to these levels".
So how to explain the success of this group?
“I'm going to reconstruct the rise in membership to try and explain everything. Italian olive growing has been increasing day after day until it reached about 20 followers in the first 4/5 years. Then, I don't know if by coincidence or otherwise, with the explosion of Xylella in Puglia it had a setback. I explain it with the mistrust that there could have been around both Xylella and groups where everyone gave their own interpretation of this phenomenon, in the contrast between scientists and deniers. Once the emotional wave has passed, Olivicoltura Italiana has continued to grow progressively until today it exceeds the threshold of 57 members. An impressive number, also driven by foreign members, especially from Tunisia and Greece. So how do I explain it? Certainly there are two aspects to highlight”.
Let's start with the first!
“We started out trying to limit the group to experts and professionals in the sector. As written in our presentation, the idea of creating the group was born to share experiences and advice on olive growing with a view to mutual collaboration. Then we realized that there was a great hunger for knowledge, especially for those who experience olive growing as a second job, the Sunday hobbyist, so to speak, who also contribute, with their small olive grove, to nourishing the extraordinary heritage national olive tree. And so we gladly welcomed those who asked to register not to spread their knowledge, but because they were really hungry for knowledge in relation to the technical-cultural, qualitative, regulatory, commercial and promotional aspects. I like to remind you, in this context, that our dissemination activity has also moved to the field, organizing three pruning championships, always involving the students of the agricultural school of Villacidro, and various pruning courses and tastings".
We come to the second aspect!
“Having chosen to set up this group with a polite, kind, respectful way of doing all. In Olivicoltura Italiana you never find someone who offends another, someone who uses vulgar language, someone who is not respectful of the sense of community that we wanted to pursue. By also blocking advertising "incursions", we managed to maintain our identity and our intent".
Any anecdote?
“I smile when they post photos of a freshly pruned olive tree asking for a comment, only to find out later that it's the neighbor's tree. But in general it is interesting to see the questions that are asked and the numerous answers provided”.
Can you give us some examples?
“From the varieties that are best suited to a specific territory or to have a better production, to the agronomic processes and therefore the best fertilizations, pruning, phytosanitary interventions, harvesting systems. Many continue to have curiosity as to whether filtered or unfiltered oil is better, a dilemma that comes up at the beginning of every oil campaign"
We asked the obvious initial question, so choose the original conclusion of this interview!
“First of all, I take the opportunity to greet all subscribers and confirm our commitment to feed this page by checking that all the proposed posts respect the rules we have set ourselves. I apologize to those who will not see their post published, evidently because it is not consistent with our method. I won't hide that management is becoming very demanding, but Olivicoltura Italiana is a creature to which all the founders are particularly attached and therefore will continue to be that point of reference chosen by lovers of this sector, to always propose new ideas, to accommodate new suggestions , to welcome new suggestions, in short, to encourage that constructive and proactive comparison which is the basis of the success of this wonderful group of ours".
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