As a result of a couple of years of preparatory work, the Italian Olive Oil Towns Association conceived the “Olive Oil Community” Brand.
The Brand aims to foster the creation—within each Olive Oil Town part of the Association’s network—of a community of stakeholders who work and cooperate daily to promote and communicate olive oil and olive growing as a heritage capable of generating value for their local area. This will bring together all resources and energies and build a coherent and shared development of activities surrounding olive oil and its world.
The Olive Oil Communities are composed of a wide range of economic, social, and cultural stakeholders who contribute to making extra-virgin olive oil a key driver of sustainable local development.
To benefit from the use of the Label, each operator must adhere to the Charter of Commitments for Sustainability and Well-being and meet certain “Mandatory Criteria”, which represent the minimum necessary and sufficient conditions for obtaining the authorization for the use of the Label. The Label beneficiaries must also commit to achieving some “Commitment Criteria” which include the actions they undertake to implement over the next three years. Both the Mandatory Criteria and the Commitment Criteria differ based on the operator categories which include farms and olive oil mills; restaurants and olive oil shops; accommodation facilities; museums and local cultural promotion associations; travel agencies, tour operators and touristic guides; as well as artisans.