Source:  The Office of the Spokesperson

“The obligatory oil labelling is a great victory for the Italian agrifood sector, for the consumers and the producers, and deserves to be remembered as a milestone of the Eu agricultural policies. It is also a cultural victory whose roots are deeply planted in the values of the rural world. In order to celebrate this decisive step that Europe has taken in protecting such a precious production, the first of July we will celebrate, with the oil world, in the Basilica of Saint Francesco in Assisi”.

To celebrate the entrance in force of the European regulations that obligate to indicate in the label the origin of the olives for extra-virgin and virgin oils, approved the 4th of February 2009, the Minister of agricultural, food and forestry policies Luca Zaia will participate to the Eucharistic celebration with all the workers of the oil sector, that will be celebrated at 11,00 in the Basilica Superiore of Assisi by father Giuseppe Piemontese, the caretaker of the Sacred convent.

At the end of the celebration, in front of the Basilica, the first labelled oil bottle will be produced and Minister Zaia will donate it to Father Piemontese.
“I have chosen this sacred place – the Minister said – because the olive oil is not only a precious fruit of our earth, but also an important symbol of our cultural and religious traditions. The friars have always shared with the people the hard job in the fields. Saint Francesco worked with its adepts accepting as compensation only the fruits of the earth.”