A Sicilian Olive Oil That Blends Heritage, Design and Sustainability

Summary

Carmen Bonfante founded Evo Sicily in Menfi to honor native olive vari­eties, craft­ing pre­mium extra vir­gin olive oil like Embrace, which won a Gold Award at the 2025 NYIOOC. Despite chal­lenges, the com­pany has grown sig­nif­i­cantly, focus­ing on sus­tain­abil­ity and cor­po­rate respon­si­bil­ity, with plans to expand and pro­mote oleo­tourism.

Groves of Nocellara, Biancolilla, and Cerasuola thrive along Sicily’s south­west­ern coast, over­look­ing the Mediterranean Sea. It was here, in her home­town of Menfi, that Carmen Bonfante founded Evo Sicily to honor these native vari­eties and the region that nur­tures them, with cor­po­rate respon­si­bil­ity as a core value.

In the Belice Valley, near the Selinunte Archaeological Park, Bonfante crafted Embrace, a pre­mium extra vir­gin olive oil that earned a Gold Award at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition. The Nocellara del Belice mono­va­ri­etal boasts a lively aro­matic pro­file with notes of green tomato and herbs.

“My project is rooted in the unique ter­ri­to­r­ial iden­tity of Sicily,” Bonfante told Olive Oil Times. ​“I call my extra vir­gin olive oil Embrace, a name that reflects both the act of wel­com­ing some­thing whole­heart­edly and the abil­ity to unite dif­fer­ent ele­ments. Much like this island, which has wel­comed count­less peo­ples over time, each leav­ing a uni­fy­ing imprint on its cul­ture.”

“A great oil embraces the dif­fer­ent fla­vors in a dish, weav­ing them in har­mony. The olive tree itself is an embrace of life, so resilient, gift­ing its fruit to gen­er­a­tions,” she added. ​“Finally, this name reflects our embrace of the eth­i­cal prin­ci­ples I believe define a qual­ity com­pany.”

For her oil, Bonfante envi­sioned a dis­tinc­tive black, cir­cu­lar-shaped ves­sel adorned with golden let­ter­ing — a design that embod­ies the very embrace it rep­re­sents and a for­ward-look­ing spirit. A spi­ral motif above the name evokes the flow­ing motion of embrace and trans­for­ma­tion, while the phrase ​“all we need” below under­scores togeth­er­ness and shared pur­pose.

Carmen Bonfante sitting under one of her ancient olive trees at Evo Sicily farm in Menfi

Before launch­ing her ven­ture in 2019, Bonfante worked as a busi­ness con­sul­tant for other farm­ing enter­prises. Her sen­sory jour­ney began in the world of wine, where she spent a decade as a pro­fes­sional som­me­lier before turn­ing to olive oil tast­ing.

“As a child, I devel­oped a pas­sion for the coun­try­side with my grand­fa­ther, who worked in agri­cul­ture and loved tak­ing me with him on his field walks,” she recalled. ​“Later, after earn­ing a degree in admin­is­tra­tion and finance, I became a project man­ager for wine and olive oil com­pa­nies. One day, a client asked me to cre­ate an entirely new olive oil project, and that oppor­tu­nity led me to begin tech­ni­cal train­ing in the sec­tor.”

During that train­ing period, Bonfante began devel­op­ing the con­cept of a com­pany devoted to craft­ing pre­mium extra vir­gin olive oils. ​“Delving into olive oil took me back to when I wan­dered through the groves with my grand­fa­ther, a feel­ing that inspired me to start some­thing truly my own,” she said.

After qual­i­fy­ing for the national list of olive oil tech­ni­cians and experts, she joined a Sicilia PGI cer­ti­fi­ca­tion panel and later became a panel leader.

Her edu­ca­tional jour­ney lasted six years and included three master’s degrees — in qual­ity cer­ti­fi­ca­tion for agri-food sup­ply chains, regional mar­ket­ing, and neu­ro­mar­ket­ing — along with spe­cial­ized courses in blend­ing, milling, and mono­va­ri­etal pro­duc­tion. Bonfante even­tu­ally became an olive oil tast­ing instruc­tor and began teach­ing future agri-food man­agers.

“I built it all lit­er­ally from the ground up,” she said. ​“I didn’t have any fam­ily land, since my par­ents weren’t involved in farm­ing. So I rented a plot and took over the man­age­ment of some aban­doned groves, together cov­er­ing a total of two hectares.”

Carmen Bonfante and her two sons harvesting olives at Evo Sicily farm in Menfi

“At the first har­vest, I pro­duced only 1,200 liters of oil. I’ll never for­get the bewil­der­ment I felt when, in early March 2020, every­thing shut down due to the pan­demic,” she recalled. ​“During that dif­fi­cult time of phys­i­cal dis­tance, the name Embrace gained even more sig­nif­i­cance.”

Despite the chal­lenges, with restau­rants closed, the com­pany man­aged to carry on and even launched sol­i­dar­ity ini­tia­tives, donat­ing part of its prof­its to char­ity.

“For the first two years, pro­duc­tion was kept at the min­i­mum nec­es­sary to sus­tain sales. Afterwards, we were finally able to expand and make real progress,” Bonfante said.

Since then, the com­pany has grown sig­nif­i­cantly, man­ag­ing six hectares of orchards with around 2,300 trees and pro­duc­ing 15,000 liters annu­ally across its prod­uct lines. Expansion plans include plant­ing new olive seedlings in the com­ing months.

Alongside the main Sicilian vari­eties, cen­turies-old trees of rare or nearly extinct types — such as Crastu, Nerva, and wild olives — dot the groves. ​“I cre­ated a lim­ited-edi­tion line from these ancient trees I recov­ered, as they rep­re­sent a her­itage of both land­scape and bio­di­ver­sity still being stud­ied,” Bonfante noted.

Since last year, she has relied on a local mill oper­ated by skilled pro­fes­sion­als and equipped with state-of-the-art Pieralisi machin­ery. ​“The Gold Award we obtained at the NYIOOC val­i­dated that choice and con­firmed we are on the right path,” she said. ​“But pro­duc­ing qual­ity prod­ucts goes beyond taste and health — it car­ries a sense of cor­po­rate respon­si­bil­ity I have pur­sued since the begin­ning.”

“We man­age the farm sus­tain­ably, adher­ing to organic prin­ci­ples, safe­guard­ing water resources, and min­i­miz­ing waste. With this spirit, we joined Friends of the Earth, an orga­ni­za­tion that com­mits us to sus­tain­abil­ity and eth­i­cal action.”

Each year, Bonfante sub­mits reports on CO₂ emis­sions, fair pay, and oil qual­ity to a super­vi­sory orga­ni­za­tion, ensur­ing strict com­pli­ance with sus­tain­abil­ity stan­dards.

“We also take part in sol­i­dar­ity cam­paigns every year,” she said. ​“Our most recent col­lab­o­ra­tion was with an asso­ci­a­tion that fights vio­lence against women, for which we cre­ated a spe­cial label. I’m also orga­niz­ing tast­ings for an asso­ci­a­tion sup­port­ing autis­tic chil­dren.”

Evo Sicily was among the first com­pa­nies to join the Olive Oil Community estab­lished in Menfi by the Città dell’Olio asso­ci­a­tion, after sign­ing the ​“Charter of Commitments for Sustainability and Wellbeing.”

One of the olive groves managed by Evo Sicily in Menfi

The company’s lat­est acqui­si­tion is an olive grove over­look­ing the beach of Giache Bianche, famed for its white peb­bles. Bonfante plans to turn a small house on the prop­erty into a venue for hos­pi­tal­ity and oleo­tourism.

“Recently I opened a new tast­ing room and a farm store, where I plan to host more events. I’m proud of how much I’ve achieved in such a short time, espe­cially given that recent years have been chal­leng­ing for olive farm­ing,” she said. ​“I gave it my all to ensure the project suc­ceeded, and today I’m deeply sat­is­fied with the result.”

“My fam­ily has given me great encour­age­ment,” Bonfante added. ​“My part­ner offers pre­cious advice, and my two sons have recently joined me. The youngest, study­ing lan­guages, assists with exports and events, while the old­est, study­ing agri­cul­tural sci­ences, helps strengthen the com­pany. They inspire my vision for the next gen­er­a­tion — one rooted in sus­tain­abil­ity, respon­si­bil­ity, and pos­i­tive impact.”