A program for the worldwide promotion of olive oil, investment in research against Xylella, maintenance and enhancement of the panel test. These are the three hot topics on which Gennaro Sicolo (in the picture), elected vice-president of the IOC advisory committee – the first Italian olive grower to hold this position – intends to work immediately. A man of struggle and government, Sicolo will have to translate into dialectical diplomacy on the intercontinental table the main battles that have seen him as a protagonist for years in the role of president of Italy Olive growing, the main association of national olive-growing POs.
Gennaro Sicolo, an election, his, which restores centrality to Italy within the International Olive Council. She wasn't that obvious, right?
“No, and for this I thank all those who wanted to support me in this role. I really appreciated the cohesion that was registered at the national level around my name, starting from the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Sovereignty, as well as the convergence of the representatives of the European countries. It is a great responsibility, which I accept with a spirit of service, humility, but also determination".
Also because there is no shortage of problems, especially at an international level!
“Exactly, a great transformation is underway in the world of olive growing which is shedding old paradigms that until recently seemed unshakable. More and more countries enter the COI, new challenges have to be faced. Turning these challenges into rules that apply to everyone will be key. My delegation to olive oil, specifically assigned by the IOC assembly to a vice-president (the other vice-president was given the delegation to table olives) reminds me and the staff who will support me in having to immediately start a programmatic and shared path”.
What are the most pressing issues?
“Many, but for now I think three are priorities. The first is linked to an international promotion program for extra virgin olive oil, making up for the years lost during the pandemic where the necessary boost was not given. Indeed, we had to fight tooth and nail to defend the extraordinary health and nutraceutical properties of this product against those who wanted to impose the traffic light label, a mechanism that disavows the value of the Mediterranean diet and the scientifically proven beneficial properties of extra virgin olive oil. Resources are needed to finance this promotion for the benefit of the consumer, wherever they are on the planet”.
As a second point, however?
“Resuming research on Xylella through a common path that can bring together the most advanced study activities present in the world today. We are still moving forward with methods to contain this bacterium, because we have not yet been able to find tools to eliminate it. Even in this case, global rules must be studied. And research must be developed that will give further results also on resistant varieties which to date are only two for olive growing and certainly insufficient”.
We come to the third goal!
“Another battle started some time ago, the one in defense of the panel test, a tool that must be maintained and strengthened as a guarantee for both producers and consumers. We have been repeating it for some time, in a unitary way in Italy: the maintenance of the organoleptic evaluation as a method for characterizing and classifying virgin olive oil, today represents an absolute necessity to be safeguarded, to maintain the privileged position that the sector has conquered with respect to substitute products, to ensure long-term viability and to seize the opportunities offered by new market evolutions”.
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