Regional Institute of Wine and Oil

Vinitaly 2015, Caleca and Di Giacomo

Nino Caleca, Councilor for Agriculture: “The recent recognition by UNESCO of the Pantelleria vine sapling as a world heritage asset in the year of EXPO2015 forces us to reflect on our history and culture, starting from wine. Man's work, which extracts precious juice from the earth and transforms it into nectar, is the expression of man's continuous challenge and his desire to search for perfection, for increasingly coveted goals, for new markets. Vinitaly with its history, the presence of companies, international buyers is a highly sought-after showcase in which the world of wine compares, knows and recognizes itself. This is why it is important to be at Vinitaly.

Sicily will be there again this year with its excellence, those companies that day after day in just over twenty years, with a dream and a vision, have transformed wine into the jewel in the crown of our agriculture. The Sicilian wine producers present in Verona have been able to combine product quality, certification tools, marketing strategies and are today competitive and successful on international markets, among the few to have understood that the challenge today has gone beyond the borders of national markets to aim for the global market. And wine represents the values of our land in an immediate and direct way. It is, in fact, one of the few products that cannot be delocalized because it is the result of specific climate, territory and cultivation technique conditions, it refers to a specific community that lives and works in that land. The world of wine has been a trailblazer for other sectors which today, following the example set and already open markets, are beginning to undertake new production and marketing paths with greater courage. This is the case, for example, of the oil sector which, with the six recognized consortia and the new PGI, is looking forward to a future of success which, I am sure, will also be able to attribute the right commercial value to our products in a short time. . It is this agriculture: modern, competitive, innovative, successful, capable of producing income, that is being looked at by more and more young people who return to the land with the enthusiasm of building a job and investment opportunity. The next RDP will continue to support Sicilian agriculture and young people and the Agriculture Department will allocate even more resources for improvements and investments in plants as well as in CMOs and international marketing measures. In Verona, Sicily will proudly participate alongside entrepreneurs, giving them every certainty that all possible tools will be activated to ensure that the quality and quantity of interventions to support good production is even greater. And the agriculture department will find all the tools to support those agricultural entrepreneurs who know how to combine territory, environment and tradition, rediscovering the values of the Mediterranean supply chain as cultural principles which must inspire a planet that does not consider its resources as goods to be plundered but as an opportunity to be preserved and developed". 

Nino Di Giacomo, IRVO extraordinary commissioner: “The Sicily of wine lives on unique and unparalleled territorial excellence in terms of nature and biodiversity. And this year too, Vinitaly will be an important showcase for the island. Pantelleria will be the protagonist in particular with its recent UNESCO recognition. Recognition that came at the conclusion of a great team effort that saw Irvo working in harmony with the Ministry of Agricultural Policies, the municipality of Pantelleria and the small producers of the island. The one hundred and sixty Sicilian wineries at the Veronese fair will bring the different terroirs, that variety which makes it its strong point and which the organization I represent seeks to carry forward and enhance thanks to control, certification and research work. In recent years, the Regional Institute of Wine and Oil has demonstrated the ability to produce income and the ability to carry out research that has benefited Sicilian wine production and beyond. In fact, the body also plays a research and certification role with some Mediterranean countries, especially Malta. And then the recent agreement with the Department of Agriculture for the management of some spaces in the BioMediterranean Cluster within the great Expo2015 event. In short, it will be a present and a future full of commitments, without neglecting the control and certification work that will arise from the launch of the PGI Olio di Sicilia".