The APOM Cooperative, which has been operating in the area for several years, reports to all the associated olive farms a series of services including the dissemination, technical assistance, collection and enhancement of the transformed product..
In this context, the Cooperative APOM a rl, which now has more than 2,000 olive growers, has carried out a series of projects financed with community and regional funds aimed at improving the quality of olive oil to promote the marketing of the product with quality (Organic, PDO, track, etc.).
These projects, implemented also with the help of qualified external technical personnel, had as their primary objective the improvement of the quality of olive oil production, of the cultivation conditions of the olive groves, as well as the dissemination and dissemination of rational agricultural practices, with the aim of improving the total quality of olive oil, intended both from the chemical-physical and organoleptic point of view.
Of the 2004/2005 campaigns, to 2015/2018 in continuity with previous activities, after having obtained recognition pursuant to EC Reg. N. 1334/02, 2080/05 and 867/08 the A.P.O.M. (today Soc. Cooperativa APOM a r.l.) presented and implemented directly with its own structure as part of the initiatives envisaged by the EC Regulations 1334/02 - 1331/04, 2080/05 - 867/08 - Reg UE n. 1220/2011 - Regulation (EU) no. 611/2014 and Reg. (EU) n. 615/2014, a three-year activity program with the aim of "Improving the environmental impact of olive growing" and "Improving the quality of olive oil production".
In the same aforementioned years and pursuant to the same Community Regulations, APOM with the collaboration of UNAPROL to which it adheres, has carried out and completed the projects relating to the "Monitoring of oil production and sale flows" and "Traceability , the certification and protection of the quality of olive oil ".
From the three-year period 2018/2021, APOM, through its National Union of reference UNAPROL, on associated companies, through qualified technicians, promotes new techniques for improving the environmental impact, improving the quality of olive oil and table olives and traceability of Sicilian extra virgin olive oil.
The program of activities aims to improve the transparency conditions of the olive oil market, analyzing and developing in particular the issues of the lack of a commercial qualification and the improvement of environmental sustainability in order to arrive at the operational aims of:
- Market analysis from the consumer's point of view
- Improvement of the environmental impact
- Improvement of olive grove cultivation techniques
- Improvement of oil transformation and storage techniques
- Improvement of the hygienic-sanitary characteristics of the oil
- Promotion of product quality assurance systems
The results are very comforting, given the interest on the part of olive growers in the proposed technical activities and in the possibility of marketing the product also with quality brands (Organic, PDO and Traced).
