`Trieste Set to Welcome 8th Olio Capitale - Olive Oil Times

Trieste Set to Welcome 8th Olio Capitale

By Luciana Squadrilli
Mar. 3, 2014 09:59 UTC

Trieste’s Stazione Marittima is ready to wel­come the 8th edi­tion of Olio Capitale, Italy’s only expo entirely ded­i­cated to the pro­mo­tion of extra vir­gin olive oil. As the event approaches, the fair’s pro­gram offers a vari­ety of inter­est­ing meet­ings and oppor­tu­ni­ties focus­ing on olive oil excel­lence.

This year, the event will see over 300 exhibitors (a 25 per­cent increase over 2013) com­ing from all pro­duc­ing regions of Italy — from Calabria and Apulia to Trentino and Veneto and many more — beside the host­ing region Friuli Venezia Giulia. This means that the more than 10,000 expected vis­i­tors will be able to taste vir­tu­ally every vari­ety among Italy’s end­less bounty — a unique overview of the country’s rich and com­plex olive oil pro­duc­tion.

The pres­ence of coun­tries such as Croatia, Albania and Greece will broaden the pro­gram’s focus on state-of-the-art extra vir­gin olive oil, while show­cas­ing 93 organic prod­ucts and 78 bear­ing an IGP or a PDO cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.

Olio Capitale thus con­firms its inter­na­tional voca­tion and the aim to pro­vide a global point of ref­er­ence for the extra vir­gin olive oil mar­ket. The pres­ence of the Japanese Ambassador Masaharu Kohno at the exhi­bi­tion is a tes­ti­mony to that.

Buyers and busi­ness vis­i­tors from around the world have reg­is­tered for the event, with the major­ity hail­ing from European coun­tries, the United States and Japan. Curtis Cord, pub­lisher of Olive Oil Times, will join the open­ing cer­e­mony as a rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the for­eign press and a media part­ner of the event.

Over the last few years Olio Capitale has achieved a very impor­tant role in the Italian extra vir­gin olive oil’s safe­guard,” said Antonio Paoletti, chair­man of Trieste’s Chamber of Commerce, one of the event main pro­mot­ers. Beside being the most rel­e­vant meet­ing point between sup­ply and demand, it is now estab­lish­ing itself also as a gath­er­ing between the Western and the Eastern worlds thanks to the high level of the sem­i­nars on the agenda.”

Once again the main focus of the exhi­bi­tion will be on excel­lence, espe­cially whether it is cer­ti­fied by a qual­ity label. Nowadays, ori­gin des­ig­na­tions and qual­ity cer­ti­fi­ca­tions are becom­ing the main way to guar­an­tee which ones are the best of Italy’s food prod­ucts all over the world,” said Paoletti.

Among the high­lights of Olio Capitale 2014 is the Cooking School, fea­tur­ing sev­eral culi­nary demon­stra­tions to let the audi­ence dis­cover the best, and often unex­pected, pair­ings for extra vir­gin olive oils with recipes belong­ing to the culi­nary her­itage of the Mediterranean diet.

The fair will also host many tast­ings, which will dif­fer in typol­ogy and con­tent. One not to be missed will surely be the cross-coun­try tast­ing fea­tur­ing oils from Italy and Croatia. The tast­ing will be con­ducted by Marco Oreggia, edi­tor of the Flos Olei guide, together with Drazen Miloloza of the Croatian Chamber of Commerce, and it will show­case some of the best Croatian extra vir­gin oils among the win­ners of the Olio Capitale 2013 com­pe­ti­tion.

Every day at the Oil Bar.” extra vir­gin lovers will be able to take a seat at the counter and dis­cover the hun­dreds of labels on dis­play, guided by the expert tasters of ONAOO, National Organization of Olive Oil Tasters. Visitors will also be able to refine their tast­ing skills first attend­ing short classes, then join­ing the pop­u­lar jury that will help assess the win­ners of the Olio Capitale 2014 com­pe­ti­tion.

Eating olives will have a ded­i­cated pre­sen­ta­tion and tast­ing on Friday after­noon.

New tech­nolo­gies will play their part, too. On Saturday, Olio Capitale will see the launch of a brand new project called L’Olio Parlante”(The Talking Oil). Created by Intoote, a hi-tech start-up based in Trieste, it con­sists of an inno­v­a­tive tech­nol­ogy that, through a QR code printed on the label, will let the con­sumer chat” in real time with a vir­tual expert (an inter­ac­tive con­ver­sa­tional agent”) who will be able to imme­di­ately answer the user’s ques­tions.

For more infor­ma­tion and to buy reduced-price tick­ets visit the event web­site.


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