The great Italian olive oil festival, for the benefit of its prettified executives from Coldiretti and Federconsorzi 2 alias CAI SpA, continues as always at the expense of protesting Italian farmers and European funding. Further reading. #CleanSpades.
1) Coldiretti, David Granieri and UNAPROL
David Granieri – board member of the national Coldiretti, as well as president of Coldiretti Lazio and Coldiretti Rome – is in his fourth term as president of UNAPROL ScpA, Italian Olive Consortium, with headquarters in the same Palazzo Rospigliosi that belonged to Federconsorzi and is now the headquarters of Coldiretti, as well as of CAI SpA alias Federconsorzi 2.
UNAPROL ScpA, in an orgy of conflicts of interest already reported on this site, (1) has drained and continues to drain tens of millions of European and national public funding. Lastly, through the awarding of 4 out of the 38 projects approved and confirmed by MASAF in the fifth tender for supply chain contracts in the agri-food sector, financed by the PNRR. (2)
2) UNAPROL’s (public) funds to Coldiretti
The public funds intended for UNAPROL are, among other things, diverted in favor of Coldiretti’s ‘party school’, AGER Srl of which Germina Campus (GerCam) SpA holds 95% of the shares, Coldiretti national the remaining 5%. GerCam in turn is the ‘safe’ of the national Coldiretti, which is its only shareholder. In addition to being the owner of the luxurious Palazzo Rospigliosi.
Vincent Gesmundo is deputy chairman, Ettore Prandini chairman of the board of GerCam. Which among other things owns Green Assicurazioni Srl – of which Vincenzo Gesmundo is a board member – which sells policies to farmers with dual intermediation by Coldiretti (through its agency Agrifides, as well as Green Assicurazioni). (3)
3) UNAPROL, Oleificio Paladino and Federconsorzi 2
The historic oil mill Paladino Land Reform Cooperative, established in 1957 in Palo del Colle (BA), has been a protagonist of cooperation in olive growing for over half a century. Until, following the economic collapse, it was entrusted by the former Ministry of Economic Development to the care of Coldiretti, through the appointment of ‘his son’ Roberto Falcone as liquidator.
Roberto Falcone in combination, had the firm together with Fabrizio Di Marzio (ex-counsellor of the Court of Cassation, then millionaire head of Coldiretti’s legal area) and Giuseppe Conte, then president of the Council of Ministers. And the ministry only revoked his appointment following a circumstantiated complaint of an exemplary conflict of interest. (4)
The company of the Oleificio Paladino is worth around €2 million, thanks to the milling, washing, tanks, etc. which UNAPROL – its tenant from 26.9.19 to 22.9.21 – had purchased through EU funding. Yet, the subsequent liquidator Gianluca Piredda ‘gave’ it to Federconsorzi 2 alias CAI SpA, on 22.12.22, with a ‘rent’ for the ridiculous sum of 32 thousand euros/year.
CAI Spa in turn it subleased OP olives to Puglia (also from Coldiretti) which, after a failed experiment in the Oleum project (of which it was a member in 2019), resumed milling activities in competition with its own mill members
4) Coldiretti, OP Latium and the betrayal of Sabina DOP oils
OP Latium OP Latium is an organisation of olive producers in Lazio, established in 2011 in Palombara Sabina (Rome). In a dozen years, it has ‘integrated’ (or rather, taken over) all the olive cooperatives in Sabina, and their production facilities. Its latest oil mill ‘Colli Sabini’ was inaugurated in January 2023 by David Granieri, Vincenzo Gesmundo and his minister Francesco Lollobrigida. (5)
Coldiretti’s lust for powerseats and public funds has pushed it to impose the registration of the ‘Olio di Roma’ PGI, which competes directly with the four extra virgin DOP olive oils already registered in Sabina (Sabina, Tuscia, Canino, Colline Pontine). (6) With the grotesque conflict of interest of Stefano Petrucci, president of the Consortium for the Protection of Sabina PDO Oil and at the same time board member of OP Latium. (7)
5) Single OP Consortium, alias UNAPROL 2
The Single Consortium OP is the latest organization created by Coldiretti for ‘enhance the oil’s regional PGIs offering ‘services’ to the five professional olive growing organizations of Tuscany, Lazio, Puglia, Calabria and Sicily. (8) Its current president is Stefano Terrasi (who at the same time presides over OP Oleum Sicilia), director Francesco Bosio (the same as OP Latium). And the statute of the Single Consortium is terribly similar to that of UNAPROL.
Coldiretti will thus be able to drain other public and private funding also through this ‘UNAPROL 2’. Which seems to be the ideal box where David Guarnieri, at the end of his fourth mandate in UNAPROL (the longest since its establishment in 1973), will be able to land. And olive growers will perhaps suffer a further cut in their prices to remunerate commissions on sales to Conad and Carrefour, partners of the Italian supply chain chaired by Paolo De Castro.
6) Coldiretti and ‘Italic’ oil
The betrayal of Italian olive-growing is not new to Vincenzo Gesmundo’s Coldiretti, which as far back as 28 2018, we recall, had signed a supply chain agreement with the UNAPROL of his David Granieri and with Federolio, to launch the ‘italic’ oil project. (10) A project, however, failed, as did the same AIPO (Italian Association of Small Olive Growers) which then joined UNAPROL to be put into liquidation with Roberto Falcone himself (see above, paragraph XNUMX) as liquidator.v. above, paragraph 3) as liquidator.
Italian’ oil in Gesmundo and Granieri’s design, could be labelled as such as it was mixed with ‘at least 50%‘ of Italian oil and other oils of any other origin. More than asupply chain agreement‘, a collective deception based on Coldiretti’s umpteenth conflict of interest with the member industries of its Filiera Italia. These include:
– Vincenzo Fusi’s Fiorentini, most recently convicted of a colossal fraud in the sale of fakes’100% Italian extra virgin olive oil(11,12)
– De Cecco, whose president is on trial for commercial fraud regarding the origin of French wheat passed off as Italian (13)
– Olitalia and various other giants. Certainly not representative of Italian olive growers and oil millers.
7) Provisional conclusions
After four years of investigation , the gigantic PGI Tuscan oil fraud led to 18 plea bargains and only two convictions (14,15). Enough to realise how:
– the Italian olive oil supply chain must be strengthened in the individual territories, favouring PDO registrations (where the raw material must come exclusively from the production area) over PGIs (where it is sufficient for processing to take place on site)
– the Coldiretti chariots offer no benefit to farmers, who instead need to buy services (e.g. agricultural assistance, insurance) in a free market and sell their products at fair prices, without the intermediaries of the various bodies in the orbit of Palazzo Rospigliosi
– the valorisation of Italian extra virgin olive oils can be achieved through technologies now within everyone’s reach such as blockchain, to guarantee the actual authenticity and traceability of the products starting from the geolocation of the olive trees. (16)
#CleanSpades
Dario Dongo
Footnotes
(1) Dario Dongo. Coldiretti and Unaprol. The uncertain fate of public funds destined for Italian olive growers. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 6.2.21
(2) Dario Dongo. PNRR and tender on supply chain contracts, Coldiretti ‘ace take it all’. #Clean spades. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 2.7.23
(3) Dario Dongo. Germina Campus, the Coldiretti holding company that speculates on farmers. #Clean shovels. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 13.6.21
(4) Dario Dongo. UNAPROL, AIPO and Oleificio Paladino, conflicts of interest like wildfire. #Clean shovels. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 13.1.22
(5) Coldiretti inaugurates the new OP Latium oil mill with Minister Lollobrigida. Meta magazine. 12.1.23 https://tinyurl.com/yd926w7t
(6) Daniel Dawson. Controversy in Italy over the new PGI “Olio di Roma”. 10.8.18 https://tinyurl.com/yndje53j
(7) Stefano Petrucci reconfirmed President of the Sabina DOP OP Latium Consortium. 29.9.17 https://tinyurl.com/mwwjwbzv
(8) Five olive-growing regions for a national olive oil PO. Natural Theatre. 27.10.23 https://tinyurl.com/3pvjfzyx
(9) It is worth remembering that Filiera Agricola Italiana SpA, of which Ettore Prandini is president (as well as SCCA, GerCam and Fondazione Campagna Amica which are members), already mediates these and other types of sales. See paragraph C of the article cited in note 3
(10) Marta Strinati, Dario Dongo. Olio Italico, the Italian sounding of Coldiretti. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 29.6.18
(11) Lorenzo Bodrero, Giulio Rubino, Cecilia Anesi. “Fake oil”, trial requested for supplier of big brands: “Fraud”. Il Fatto Quotidiano. 3.6.13, updated 29.3.21 https://tinyurl.com/3kz8a96n
(12) Patrizia Macciocchi. “Fake” extra virgin olive oil for large-scale distribution for the average consumer. The Sun 24 hours. 21.12.23 https://tinyurl.com/2xrkvjer
(13) Dario Dongo. Filippo Antonio De Cecco to trial for fraud on the origin of wheat in pasta. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 5.5.23
(14) Francesca Gori. Counterfeit oil, Olma also at the center of the investigation. All the names of the suspects. The Tyrrhenian Sea. 8.3.16 https://tinyurl.com/ye7cnnvz
(15) Francesca Gori. Oil fraud: the maxi trial ends with two light sentences. Maremma Today. 13.12.23 https://tinyurl.com/46v5cx4p
(16) Dario Dongo. Agri-food blockchain, from Walmart to the FDA in the USA, Wiise Chain in Italy. To the Web 3. GIFT (Great Italian Food Trade). 9.2.22
Dario Dongo, lawyer and journalist, PhD in international food law, founder of WIISE (FARE - GIFT - Food Times) and Égalité.