`Record Year for International Participation at 7th Olio Capitale - Olive Oil Times
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Record Year for International Participation at 7th Olio Capitale

By Naomi Tupper
Mar. 15, 2013 08:26 UTC

The spe­cial­ist Italian trade fair, held in the city of Trieste, played host to a record num­ber of vis­i­tors and attracted even greater inter­na­tional involve­ment than pre­vi­ous years.

Olio Capitale 2013, one of the only trade events ded­i­cated entirely to olive oil attract­ing around 10,500 vis­i­tors through the doors of its new venue, the Stazione Marittima, located in the city cen­ter. Those attend­ing included peo­ple from all walks of life from olive oil buy­ers from around the globe to mem­bers of the gen­eral pub­lic inter­ested in learn­ing more about olive oil cul­ture, orga­niz­ers said.

President of the Trieste cham­ber of com­merce Antonio Paoletti described the event as not only a trade fair where buy­ers from all over the world come to deal with pro­duc­ers, but also a cel­e­bra­tion of olive oil at the very high­est level. The event, which was con­cluded March 4th, is said to have also brought ben­e­fits for the city, which is a hub for European trade.

The focus of this year’s expo was the Mediterranean diet, with spe­cial atten­tion also paid to prod­uct qual­ity and the unique uses for olive oil in trans­form­ing the mun­dane into some­thing spe­cial in the culi­nary world. Particularly pop­u­lar were the cook­ery classes held in con­junc­tion with the Italian National Federation of chefs, which saw the par­tic­i­pa­tion of over 3,000 peo­ple through­out the dura­tion of the show with around 100 par­tic­i­pants attend­ing each demon­stra­tion given by a local chef.

Business inter­ac­tions were also fruit­ful, with the expo pro­vid­ing a unique oppor­tu­nity for pro­duc­ers and buy­ers to meet. 231 com­pa­nies, rang­ing from small bou­tique pro­duc­ers to large sup­pli­ers, dis­played their prod­ucts this year and vast quan­ti­ties of busi­ness meet­ings were con­ducted between exhibitors and buy­ers from spe­cific tar­get mar­kets from Europe and around the world through­out the event.

Perhaps the high­light of Olio Capitale 2013, was the Concorso Olio Capitale com­pe­ti­tion. Winners were announced on the final day of trade. Tuscany was a stand-out region, boast­ing six of the top fif­teen final­ists, how­ever Puglia was the biggest win­ner of the day tak­ing four of the seven prizes on offer. Sardinia and Sicily also took home prizes for their top oils.

Although the oils mak­ing up the final places were pre-selected by a judg­ing panel, all poten­tial extra vir­gin olive oil con­sumers were rep­re­sented in the final judg­ing. A total of three pan­els made up respec­tively of chefs and restau­ra­teurs, pro­fes­sional testers and mem­bers of the gen­eral pub­lic were respon­si­ble for selec­tion of the win­ners on the day.

This year saw the biggest inter­na­tional con­tin­gent to par­tic­i­pate yet, with 20 per­cent of the oils herald­ing from out­side of Italy. However, the host coun­try was still the big win­ner when it came to the com­pe­ti­tion, resound­ingly cho­sen by the judges over oils from Spain, Portugal, Greece and Israel.


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