Cooperative in Calabria Offers Much More Than Good Olive Oil

Recent News

The Nelson Mandela Social Cooperative was founded in 2017 in Gioiosa Ionica, in the province of Reggio Calabria, by a group of local devel­op­ment experts, social work­ers and cul­tural oper­a­tors with the aim of pro­mot­ing the eth­i­cal employ­ment of young and dis­ad­van­taged peo­ple.

“Our vision is to build up a path of par­tic­i­pa­tion, shar­ing, pres­ence on the ter­ri­tory and devel­op­ment from below,” Maurizio Zavaglia, city man­ager and coop­er­a­tive co-founder, told Olive Oil Times.

“We cre­ated a social coop­er­a­tive focused on high-qual­ity agri­cul­ture, through which we can con­tribute con­cretely to sup­port­ing and pro­mot­ing this area, that has many resources but is char­ac­ter­ized by high unem­ploy­ment, espe­cially among young peo­ple,” he added.

To do this, their activ­i­ties are directed to the need­i­est, Zavaglia said. ​“Especially refugees, migrants, those who run away from wars, con­flicts, atroc­i­ties, tribu­la­tion, drought and then have to risk their lives at sea in search of a bet­ter liv­ing prospect.”

In recent years, mil­lions of peo­ple flee­ing war, famine and human rights vio­la­tions in their coun­tries — includ­ing Syria, Iraq, Yemen, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan and other areas of the world — have attempted to reach Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.

In search of bet­ter liv­ing con­di­tions, these refugees have embarked on treach­er­ous, des­per­ate jour­neys, which often have deadly con­se­quences. Since 2013, about 20,000 peo­ple lost their lives dur­ing these voy­ages of hope.

Meanwhile, the south­ern coasts and bor­ders of Italy, Greece and Spain have wit­nessed the arrival of thou­sands of sur­vivors, many of whom have been helped by non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions, state insti­tu­tions and vol­un­teers.

The coop­er­a­tive hosted and hired recently-arrived refugees in Italy through Humanitarian Corridors — a pro­gram launched in 2015 with the col­lab­o­ra­tion of reli­gious orga­ni­za­tions of dif­fer­ent denom­i­na­tions (the Community of Sant’Egidio, with the Federation of Evangelical Churches in Italy, the Waldensian Table) and the Italian gov­ern­ment — which makes it pos­si­ble to issue visas for peo­ple in con­di­tions of par­tic­u­lar vul­ner­a­bil­ity, allow­ing them to reach Italy safely.

“The project is fully self-financed, we don’t use pub­lic resources and, there­fore, the only way to get ahead with our objec­tives of pro­mot­ing this ter­ri­tory and enhanc­ing eco­nomic and social inte­gra­tion is to be com­pet­i­tive on the mar­ket, car­ry­ing on high-qual­ity farm­ing,” Zavaglia said.

About 500 olive trees, inter­spersed with cit­rus trees, are scat­tered over a 20-hectare (49.4‑acre) farm lying on gen­tle hills slop­ing down to the Torbido val­ley, where the pres­ence of a river fer­til­izes the soil and favors lush veg­e­ta­tion.

This good land assists the Nelson Mandela mem­bers in pro­duc­ing a high-qual­ity organic extra vir­gin olive oil, with zero envi­ron­men­tal impact, as pro­duc­tion of sus­tain­able and healthy prod­ucts became an unmiss­able strong­point of their mis­sion.

“We want to help peo­ple to build a life plan,” Zavaglia said, adding that often, even the best expe­ri­ences of hos­pi­tal­ity are con­cluded when nec­es­sary doc­u­ments are obtained by the guests.

“We real­ized that, instead, inclu­sion and inte­gra­tion in the ter­ri­tory through work are pos­si­ble,” he said. ​“With the vision of sup­port­ing peo­ple who emi­grate in search of a bet­ter life, as well as that of the youth of the local com­mu­nity, we walk hand in hand fol­low­ing a path of sol­i­dar­ity… along which are built oppor­tu­ni­ties of dig­nity legal­ity, and respect of human rights.”

With these premises, they have recently started to wel­come other ben­e­fi­cia­ries of inter­na­tional pro­tec­tion, who are at risk of ille­gal employ­ment.

“The most deprived peo­ple are at risk of labor exploita­tion,” Zavaglia said. ​“It is our task to pro­tect them from the threat of gang mas­ter­ing. Here, their lives have changed, they are happy to coop­er­ate with us, and their work becomes valu­able and essen­tial for the Nelson Mandela pro­duc­tions.”

The group cur­rently con­sists of 15 peo­ple, which include coop­er­a­tive mem­bers, two vol­un­teers, two trainees and other col­lab­o­ra­tors dur­ing the tourist sea­son, while other mem­bers are about to join.

Ten peo­ple are involved in the pro­duc­tion of three mono­va­ri­etals, obtained from both sec­u­lar and young plants of the Nocellara Messinese, Carolea and Geracese vari­eties, the lat­ter of which is typ­i­cal of the area.

Thanks to a prun­ing sys­tem that favors the growth of the low branches of the trees the har­vest is easy and very safe.

Fruits are picked in early October and deliv­ered within a few hours to the mill, in order to obtain a prod­uct with high chem­i­cal and organolep­tic prop­er­ties which is dis­trib­uted in Italy and abroad through eth­i­cal pur­chas­ing groups, fair trade cir­cuits and other chan­nels of the social econ­omy based on respon­si­ble con­sump­tion.

At the end of the extra vir­gin olive oil pro­duc­tion in November, in order to ensure employ­ment con­ti­nu­ity, the oper­a­tors start to work mainly in the cit­rus orchard. In March, they return to the olive grove for prun­ing, which keeps them busy through­out the spring. Following this, the par­tic­i­pants will begin to pre­pare the tourist accom­mo­da­tions man­aged by the coop­er­a­tive, Villa Santa Maria, for the sum­mer.

“We belong to civil soci­ety and, along­side many other peo­ple in Calabria, we work to make things bet­ter with tenac­ity and deter­mi­na­tion,” Zavaglia said.

“Legality, inclu­sion, accep­tance, devel­op­ment, sus­tain­abil­ity, and respect for human beings are the ref­er­ence points of the Nelson Mandela Cooperative. When you use our extra vir­gin olive oil, you can feel the taste of high qual­ity and the per­fume of sol­i­dar­ity and social jus­tice.”