Marco de Ceglie is Born in Italy, Marco grew up in Rome where he took a university degree summa cum laude in Economics and Business Administration; he was appointed CEO of SALOV North America (Filippo Berio Olive Oil) – the New Jersey based, US Subsidiary of SALOV S.p.A. of Italy which is part of the Brite Food Group – in February 2016.
Since 2017 is member of the Executive Committee of North American Olive Oil Association (NAOOA)
Olive Oil is such a great food, so ancient and traditional and yet so innovative and versatile, truly healthy and yet very tasteful and enjoyable. For centuries, it has had sacred religious values and it has been treasured by people for its nutritional and food preservation values – to the point that, in Italian old superstitions, to spill Olive Oil (like wasting salt) brings bad luck.
No wonder, Olive Oil inspires so much passion in its loving consumers – old and new – as well as within the people that earn their leaving working in Olive Oil – from the olive tree fields to the commercial organizations that make the product available around the world.
I have been involved with Olive Oil for about 25 years and since my early days I have had the opportunity to get to know and appreciate the role that the North American Olive Oil Association (NAOOA) has played and continues to play in the United States. And in 2017 I got the honor to become a member of the Association Executive Committee.
If you want to find people knowledgeable and passionate about Olive Oil, the NAOOA is the place. Recently, with the beginning of a small domestic Olive Oil production (about 5% of the US market in 2017), there has been a proliferation of “newly converted” preachers, that have become quite vocal in the attempt to represent the category values – some genuinely passionate and professional, some very opportunistic and “not well informed” (unfortunately, generating very damaging fake news about the category). But we should not suddenly forget who has created the category in the USA and who has advocated and protected its quality standards for decades.
These are the merits of the NAOOA, a voluntary Association of Olive Oil producers, importers and distributors, whose members adhere to independent quality controls made by the Association though random in store products pick-up – chemicals and organoleptic tests performed by IOC (International Olive Council) accredited labs. Membership continuation is dependent on always passing the tests! These tests have been consistently performed for decades; recently, the Association has made available a quality seal attesting higher standards to the members that accept to pass additional level of testing.
This is the right way to protect the category values and guarantee the consumers, pity that the Association is not as noisy as some “commercially biased news” about “alleged vast quality scandals”. But we know, decades long honest hard work is boring news that doesn’t sell.
However, the NAOOA is determined to remain a focal point of correct and unbiased information; and the Olive Oil Conference to be held in Chicago next July (at its 4th edition) will be a key opportunity not to be missed by opinion leaders and category professional truly passionate about Olive Oil.
As a final note, I was told that I am the first Italian to become a member of the Executive Committee in the 3 decades long Association’s life; I am humbled to represent my Country of origin within the NAOOA – although, nowadays, I should count as Italian/American because of my dual nationality. But you would be surprised to see how truly international the work of the Association is. Irrespective of the Country of origin of the Olive Oils, the NAOOA work is directed to defend the genuinity and the quality parameters of the products.
In the end, quality is made by people, not by geographical entities! People passionate and expert about their Olive Oils. This is what the America consumers want and deserve. Maybe it is time to have a more rigorous approach to Olive Oil news.