Calabrian Cooperative Emphasizes Quality While Building Economies of Scale

Olive farm­ers in Calabria, Italy’s sec­ond-largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing region, have already begun the har­vest.

“While we do not antic­i­pate large vol­umes this year, we expect a top-qual­ity prod­uct,” said Valeria Minasi, coor­di­na­tor of the Dea Carolea project in the south­west­ern Italian region.

Dea Carolea is an exper­i­men­tal coop­er­a­tive formed by local olive oil pro­duc­ers. The goal is to achieve economies of scale, opti­mize agro­nomic prac­tices and col­lec­tively ele­vate their high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil on the global mar­ket.

Dea Carolea is a play on words that merges the Italian word for god­dess, dea, with Carolea, the olive vari­ety that has long dom­i­nated the plains of Lamezia Terme.

Under the Dea Carolea brand, par­tic­i­pat­ing grow­ers adhere to strict pro­duc­tion pro­to­cols and olive oil cer­ti­fi­ca­tions.

The Dea Carolea project expands on the work of pro­duc­ers already oper­at­ing within the Lametia Protected Designation of Origin cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, which applies to olive oil pro­duced in Lamezia Terme.

Numerous olive grow­ers man­age small and medium-sized orchards across the plain, and some fam­i­lies have been pro­duc­ing olive oil for cen­turies.

Dea Carolea is pro­moted as an oppor­tu­nity for grow­ers to expand their farms, farm­houses and olive oil mills, fos­ter­ing resilience through col­lec­tive effort.

“A new gen­er­a­tion of olive entre­pre­neurs who have taken over and revi­tal­ized their fam­ily busi­nesses are the dri­ving force behind the project,” Minasi said. ​“For the brand to emerge, as was the case with the renowned Terra di Bari, this her­itage and these diverse expe­ri­ences must con­verge into a sin­gle prod­uct.”

According to the project coor­di­na­tor, 17 pro­duc­ers have already com­mit­ted to meet­ing the brand’s PDO stan­dards in part or all of their pro­duc­tion.

“Some of our trees are cen­turies old, while oth­ers have been replaced to enhance pro­duc­tiv­ity,” said Maria Cristina Di Giovanni, co-owner of Podere d’Ippolito, a PDO con­sor­tium farm and a Dea Carolea project pro­moter. ​“However, we avoid inten­sive or super-inten­sive farm­ing because this is our land­scape and iden­tity.”

“Managing such a beau­ti­ful olive grove is not always easy due to the costs involved,” she added. ​“Century-old trees are more demand­ing and chal­leng­ing, and we have faced man­power short­ages.”

According to Di Giovanni, the frag­men­ta­tion and small scale of local olive oil pro­duc­ers have slowed the recog­ni­tion of Carolea’s extra vir­gin olive oils.

“Initially, we orga­nized pro­mo­tions and meet­ings with buy­ers and oth­ers inter­ested in Lametia PDO olive oil,” Di Giovanni said. ​“This allowed us to iden­tify poten­tial weak­nesses.”

“We real­ized that join­ing forces was essen­tial to ensure both qual­ity and quan­tity,” she added, high­light­ing the need to meet the demands of the inter­na­tional mar­ket.

In addi­tion to the Lametia PDO guide­lines, Dea Carolea pro­vides mem­bers with spe­cific pro­ce­dures to fol­low.

These pro­ce­dures ensure access only to PDO-cer­ti­fied extra vir­gin olive oil, also tested by a cer­ti­fied tast­ing panel.

“We test every batch sub­mit­ted to the project that already has a PDO cer­ti­fi­ca­tion,” Minasi said. ​“Once these batches are blended into a sin­gle prod­uct, the result­ing extra vir­gin olive oil will also receive its own PDO cer­ti­fi­ca­tion.”

“Additionally, the prod­uct under­goes fur­ther exam­i­na­tion by a cer­ti­fied panel test, after which it becomes a Dea Carolea extra vir­gin olive oil,” she noted.

Due to the vary­ing agro­nomic prac­tices of its mem­bers, Dea Carolea pro­duces organic and con­ven­tional olive oils.

“One exam­ple of the stan­dard­ized pro­ce­dures is the har­vest, which is expected to be in full swing by mid-October,” Minasi explained.

Producers opt for an early har­vest to cap­ture the opti­mal qual­ity of the Carolea cul­ti­var while avoid­ing poten­tial olive fruit fly infes­ta­tions.

“A dis­tinc­tive fea­ture of this crop is its excep­tion­ally high final olive oil yield, unmatched by oth­ers, even with early har­vest­ing,” said Antonio Lauro, pro­fes­sional taster and founder of the EVO IOOC Italy olive oil qual­ity com­pe­ti­tion.

Early har­vest­ing allows Carolea to show­case its opti­mal health ben­e­fits and organolep­tic qual­i­ties.

“When har­vested early, Carolea con­tains a high level of bio­phe­nols, which is not the case when har­vested mature,” Lauro said. ​“The ideal time to har­vest is when the olives begin turn­ing from green to yel­low, achiev­ing a yield that remains high com­pared to other cul­ti­vars.”

“It is a highly appre­ci­ated olive oil with a nearly intense medium fruity pro­file,” he added. ​“The cultivar’s char­ac­ter­is­tic notes include apple, golden apple, and almond, with hints of arti­choke and olive leaf often present.”

Carolea’s bit­ter­ness is dis­tinctly pro­nounced, with a medium inten­sity. ​“It tends to over­shadow the spicy notes, which are also medium inten­sity but slightly milder,” Lauro said.

Di Giovanni pointed out that act­ing as a coop­er­a­tive among the mem­bers allows buy­ers seek­ing Dea Carolea olive oils to deal with a sin­gle point of con­tact.

“We believe this is the key step for­ward that we’ve been striv­ing for,” she said. ​“New pro­duc­ers are emerg­ing, many of whom are young, which is very promis­ing. We are proud that the PDO con­sor­tium now includes his­tor­i­cal part­ners and many young women-led busi­nesses.”

Both Minasi and Di Giovanni empha­sized that the next step for the project, beyond launch­ing Dea Carolea, is to focus on its fur­ther expan­sion.

“While medium-sized, well-struc­tured com­pa­nies can ben­e­fit from the project, this is espe­cially true for small pro­duc­ers,” Di Giovanni said.

“Collaboration enables greater com­pet­i­tive­ness and more advan­ta­geous joint acqui­si­tions,” she added. ​“It also opens up access to fund­ing sources that pub­lic poli­cies reserve for com­pany groups, con­sor­tia and coop­er­a­tives, align­ing with the legislator’s direc­tion.”

“Carolea olive oil and table olives are highly sig­nif­i­cant for Calabria, likely rep­re­sent­ing 40 to 50 per­cent of the region’s olive pro­duc­tion,” Lauro said. ​“This crop is quite hardy, though it does suf­fer from pathogens like peacock’s eye; how­ever, these are man­age­able even in organic farm­ing.”

“If all goes as planned, the har­vest will be com­pleted by October,” Minadi con­cluded. ​“Certifications will be issued in November, and Dea Carolea should be avail­able for sale by the end of that month.”