July 23 – Santiago de Chile is about to host the first edition of Sol d’Oro Southern Hemisphere, an initiative sponsored by Veronafiere, scheduled for September 29-October 3. The event seeks to enhance and showcase quality extra virgin olive oils produced in Argentina, Chile, Peru, Brazil, Uruguay, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The original competition is now in its 12th year, taking place later in the winter in Verona. Panel Cata Chile, the trade association in the South American country that promotes the consumption of olive oil quality, asked to have an international, southern, edition of the competition to ensure fair play to all participants and the same high standards of judgment. “Olive oils from the Southern Hemisphere have began to emerge for their quality – says Ettore Riello, President of Veronafiere – but to express their full potential they need to be judged at a suited time in their production, which occurs 6 months before than it does in the Northern Hemisphere. For this reason, we extended the reach of Sol d’Oro’s mission, which is to enhance and commend the best olive oil productions in the world; we became patrons of the new initiative, providing our know-how and our lead panel judge.” Marino Giorgetti, the lead panel judge, has been training for months now the Chilean competition panelists. “Sol d’Oro Southern Hemisphere will allow the olive oils produced at this latitude to be recognized at an international level thanks to the quality certificate that only Sol d’Oro has to offer,” says José Mingo, president of Panel Cata Chile, who is organizing the event with the support of Veronafiere.
