David Granieri has been reconfirmed as head of Unaprol, Italy’s most important olive-growing production consortium.
Granieri, 44, already president of Unaprol for nine years, is currently national Vice-President of Coldiretti and President of OP Latium.
The members’ general meeting, which approved the company’s financial statements, also renewed the entire Board of Directors, which will remain in office until 2026.
“We have several challenges ahead in these years to relaunch Italian olive growing through actions in Italy and Europe to protect product quality, farmers’ work, and guarantee consumers,” explains President Granieri. “Starting, for example, with the proposal to tighten the chemical parameters for the extra virgin olive oil category, and opposing any action aimed at delegitimising the evidentiary value of the panel test”.
“We need to get politics to truly believe in this sector, through a new national olive-growing plan that strengthens virtuous production chains through new plantings and the modernisation of existing ones, for which the first funds have already been allocated,” Granieri continues. “We have a duty to be ready to face the challenges of climate change too, which this year, according to initial estimates, could halve production in Spain”.
“It will also be essential to continue the fight against xylella and actions with the Ministry and the Puglia Region to speed up the spending process for the 300 million euros already allocated for the extraordinary olive-growing regeneration plan in Puglia, and to allocate further funds,” concludes the President of Unaprol. “In this sense, the liberalisation of the patent for the FS-17 Favolosa cultivar – which, along with Leccino, is the only one resistant to the disease – and support for research into new resistant cultivars could favour the rebirth of olive growing in Salento”.
