Ceq Italia and QvExtra!

The European Union announced to launch a 3-year promotional campaign for high-quality European extra virgin olive oils from 2017 to 2019 in Japan. The high-quality extra virgin olive oil promotional consortium; Consorzio di Garanzia dell’Olio Extra Vergine di Oliva di Qualità (CEQ Italia) and QvExtra! International (QvExtra!) are mainly leading this campaign and striving to increase the awareness of the nutritional, sensory and health benefits of extra virgin olive oils of the highest quality though giving lectures for trainee chefs at one of the most famous cookery schools in Japan, offering olive oil special trainings for gourmet store staff including buyers and workers in the trade industry, and conducting in-store promotion with cooking demonstration for consumers at the local gourmet stores.

In recent years, the market of olive oils in Japan has been expanding and “olive oil” is gaining popularity among the consumers. Although, Japan is not a member of the International Olive Council (IOC) and there is no standards for the quality of olive until today. It could be said that the definition of extra virgin olive oil is not aciculate in Japan and some of “extra virgin olive oils” in the Japanese market are not fulfilled the criteria of extra virgin olive oil prescribed by IOC.

Therefore, as launching this campaign, we would like to increase awareness of high-quality extra virgin olive oils through executing the activities below;

Organize 3 day extra virgin olive oil training course at the famous cookery schools and the trainees will be encouraged to produce and create a recipe which enhances the use of extra virgin olive oil in the contest of the local culinary tradition at the end of the course.
Throw a luncheon/dinner for the stakeholders including journalists collaborating with diet and health magazines, sector operators, doctors, nutritionists and opinion makers and enhance the knowledge on sensorial and nutritional characteristics of high-quality extra virgin olive oils.
Offer direct training sessions to the workers in the trade industry including importers, distributes, customer managers in gourmet stores by the olive oil experts from Italy and Spain and provide technical and practical information to improve display and storage of the extra virgin olive oils at gourmet stores.
Conducting in-store promotions with cooking live demonstrations at local gourmet stores and promoting the nutritional, unique flavor, and health benefits of extra virgin olive oil to the final consumers.

Olive oils is the juice of the olive (fruit) which is not exposed to high-heat and the solvent process. Especially, extra virgin olive oil is categorized in the highest quality and has rich fragrance, spiciness, and health benefits.
Through this promotional campaign, all the extra virgin olive oils which will be introduced passed the stricter standards than the international standard (i.e. IOC) that are commonly applied, which is the acidity is lower than 0.8.

CEQ Italia is a non-profit organization which founded in 2001 to promote the culture of quality EVOO and provide correct information of EVOO to consumers as well as to protect and guarantee the quality of EVOO released on the market. There are currently 37 members though out Italy.

QvExtra! is a private non-profit organization which founded in early 2013 and aiming to promote EVOO on both a national and international level. It’s 44 member companies are all producers of EVOO.

Olio Officina