Veronica Barbati, from Irpinia, is the new president of the renewed Campania IGP Olive Oil Protection Consortium. With a degree in Economics and Management of Tourism Services, she is the provincial president of Coldiretti Avellino and Aprol Campania. In Roccabascerana, Barbati is also involved in the family business with her parents, Biagio and Patrizia, and her brothers Maurizio, Giuseppe, and Armando. She is already looking to the future: ‘Together with my team, we are already working to accelerate the recognition of our consortium, as well as focusing on an important promotional campaign for the brand, which will also strengthen actions to protect and promote the excellence of regional olive oil in national and international markets. The consortium is home to everyone, and we are encouraged and strengthened by the many new membership requests.’
Producers from the inland areas have joined, from Roberto Mazzei, the new regional president of Coldiretti, from Montella, to Maria Tortoriello from Buccino, director of Avellino. ‘Origin is not necessarily a guarantee of competence, but it is true that living in our inland areas forges the temperament of those who are determined enough to still believe that the world, that things, can be changed, with intelligence, competence, and a clear growth strategy, knowing how to connect the various actors in the supply chain, including institutional ones. I don’t know if I have all these qualities, but I will give it my all.’
Barbati tries to outline the state of olive oil in Campania, which inevitably leads to Irpinia, among the most precious areas for its cultivars, especially Ravece. ‘Despite the difficulties of recent years, the potential picture is good. We are in the harvest: good quantities, yields mostly average except for some cases, and decidedly high quality. Campania has just under 70,000 hectares of olive groves, with over 8,000 in Irpinia, set to increase thanks to projects presented through the regional measure SRG07 launched by the Region, thanks to important work by Aprol and Coldiretti Campania, inspired by the visionary director Salvatore Loffreda, who unfortunately recently passed away. Irpinia has identity varieties like the PDO Ravece Colline dell’Ufita. There is much work to be done. Here too, there is high fragmentation and little aggregation in the supply chain.’
For Barbati, a strong territorial IGP, in this case regional, if well structured, is a huge opportunity to further enhance and better promote the green gold—olive oil, like wine and beyond. Now they are considering other products: chestnuts, truffles, hazelnuts, cheeses, which can also contribute to the inland areas. ‘Olive oil,’ says Barbati, ‘is not a product like the others; above all, it is a nutraceutical food, the prince of the Mediterranean diet, derived from a plant, the olive tree, which permeates the entire region, albeit with different intensities, characterizes our landscape, and helps maintain it.’ And if olive oil is integrated with tourism, it can generate further widespread economic value, make evident the essential territorial link for quality productions, bridge the gap between producers and consumers, and above all, generate economic value and, not least, represent an opportunity for the new generations of farmers and supply chain operators. ‘Regarding oleotourism,’ says Barbati, ‘we can and must do much more; we have a specific law, and now we need to make it concrete with entrepreneurial projects.’
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Dining and Cooking