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Basilicata, Wild Olive of Southern Italy

By Aldo Pesce
Nov. 20, 2014 09:57 UTC
Summary Summary

Basilicata, a region in Italy known for its grapes and olives, is strug­gling to estab­lish its olive oil indus­try due to frag­mented pro­duc­tion and lack of invest­ment, despite the region’s ideal cli­mate for olive grow­ing. However, with new oppor­tu­ni­ties on the hori­zon, such as Matera being named the 2019 European Capital of Culture, there is hope that Basilicata’s olive oil will gain recog­ni­tion and value in the future.

A land of grapes, olives and tragic beauty, Basilicata is one of the small­est regions of Italy and its olive oil is not as well known as some oth­ers.

In the mid­dle of the Mezzogiorno, this region has a per­fect cli­mate for olive grow­ing. The most com­mon vari­eties of olives here are: Ogliarola del Vulture, Ogliarola del Bradano, Majatica di Ferrandina and Farasana.

While only Ogliarola del Vulture has the PDO des­ig­na­tion, all of the local vari­eties pro­duce oils prized for their well-bal­anced and fruity taste.

Many of the groves in Basilicata are over hills dif­fi­cult to access and to har­vest. In gen­eral olive oil pro­duc­tion is less orga­nized — a far cry from the mod­ern sys­tems found in sur­round­ing regions, like Puglia or Calabria.

This frag­men­ta­tion of pro­duc­tion is dis­cour­ag­ing invest­ments in the sec­tor. Half of the olive oil mills here still use presses, often mix­ing olives of widely vary­ing con­di­tion.

These fac­tors are mak­ing it dif­fi­cult for Basilicata’s olive oil to stand out. With 90 per­cent of its pro­duc­tion extra-vir­gin, and mostly from organic agri­cul­ture, Basilicata oils are still typ­i­cally sold unbranded and hardly any (3 per­cent) is exported.

Nevertheless Lucani, as peo­ple from Basilicata are called in Italian, are encour­aged because new oppor­tu­ni­ties are com­ing soon. Matera has recently been named 2019 European Capital of Culture — a high-pro­file oppor­tu­nity to raise the aware­ness of Basilicata’s olive oil poten­tial.

Meanwhile, next week, the mayor of Matera will meet Siena’s mayor, in the Tuscan city, at the national assem­bly of the asso­ci­a­tion of olive oil munic­i­pal­i­ties, Città dell’Olio, to tighten the part­ner­ship between these cities in the name of the olive and extra-vir­gin olive oil.

Producers are prepar­ing for these events, ready to add value to the liq­uid gold com­ing from this wild land that in the past gave inspi­ra­tion to great artists includ­ing Pasolini and Carlo Levi.

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