June 5 – Italy, through Unaprol, the Italian olive oil consortium, is the holder of a European project promoting the responsible consumption of extra virgin olive oil. The project covers four countries: Italy, Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands. Tomorrow early afternoon in Brussels, at the Hotel Amigo, there will be a medium term (second year) press conference of the project to take stock of the situation in the European market in relation to oil production and world consumption. The actors involved in this three-year project, set up for a total investment of more than € 5 million, are the European Union (50%), the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry (20%) and Unaprol with 30% of the resources involved. Extra virgin olive oil is the product symbol of Made in Italy food all over the world, it is forever present in every Italian kitchen, and it represents the engine for Italy’s economic development, for all the companies that thrive and ensure the best quality. “Italy – says Unaprol – is the crossroads of the olive oil market and is the center of quality production in the Mediterranean: the plant is worth €2 billion, and there are over 250 million olive trees planted on more than one million hectares. There are 350 varieties of cataloged olives that make our country the first in the world for the richness and uniqueness of table olive oil. Olive trees are a source of income and work, considering that each year, an olive oil farm requires 58 million days of work to cultivate and produce the Italian nectar.”
