Hello,
I am Alice Sommariva, the fifth generation of the Family business, and today I would like to tell you more about our reality.
For over 106 years we have been producingextra virgin olive oil and many other Ligurian excellences.
Our family is originally from Genoa, where the first farm was born. Later, we moved to the Piana d’Albenga and acquired the oil mill within the walls of the historic center of the city, our current headquarters.
Here we still produce the Oil, with a functioning oil mill open to the public, and thanks to our grandparents Bugi and Nino, who passionately collected over time tools and utensils related to the activity and the territory, we have the beautiful Museum “The Civilization of the Olive” signed Sommariva.
Our core business is mainly based on Oil Evo. The need to keep up with the times and the evolution of technologies has led us to replace the systems and obtain an excellent Cold Extracted Oil Evo, pitted, which maintains all the nutritional properties intact.
From oil and with oil, we have expanded our production range, offering Organic Genovese Pesto with DOP Genovese basil, Taggiasche Olives in brine, Centa Caviar, Anchovy Cream, Artichokes in oil and other references.
The evolution of our product offering has gone in the direction of a new way to respond to an increasingly differentiated and demanding market demand. We therefore started first with organic production, and then arrived at proposals suitable for those with food intolerances, all with production processes attentive to the environment.
80% of our products are produced by us, as in the family farm we grow most of the raw materials, using organic farming methods, such as basil, arugula, dill, olives, and we transform them in our laboratory overlooking the sea.
Among the main products we offer, a prominent place is certainly occupied by Olive Extra Virgin Olive Oil along with other delicacies from our territory.
Among these, we find our Organic Genovese Pesto, in three variants, traditional, without garlic and vegan (without cheese). For all these, we use the DOP Genovese basil from our cultivation, which combined with love for tradition makes it unique like homemade.
In addition to pesto, we produce other must-try creams: the Centa Caviar, a tasty cream of Taggiasche olives with anchovies and capers; Its name is a fantasy name as our city Albenga is crossed by the Centa river. And, the inimitable Anchovy Cream, delicate, soft, and enveloping, loved even by those who do not appreciate fish and excellent with vegetables, tartare, and pasta. Many of our customers describe it as addictive, so be careful!
You can find our products directly on our Online Shop, or in our store and oil mill within the walls of the historic center of Albenga.
You can also find us in small shops of macrobiotics and organic products, high-quality bakeries, and in online sites of food and Italian excellences.
I want to clarify that we are not present in large distribution, because we are an artisan company that prefers quality over quantity.
We have always been lovers of excellence, so we are very strict and demanding about the quality of what we offer.
It is essential for this to have the entire internal supply chain of the products.
Back in 1972, we were among the first to believe in Organic, even though almost no one believed in this method of agriculture, and even now we carry on this philosophy.
We then try to convey these principles through careful and attentive study for packaging.
Sometimes working in a 100% Family team like this is very difficult as we have various ideas, sometimes discordant even due to generational differences, but … “we all row” in one direction!
My dad Agostino was a great sailor – world champion and Olympic athlete in Seoul in 1988, and, thinking he is always at sea commanding his boat, decides to centralize everything … sometimes it’s hard to change his mind … little by little, however, I am succeeding and he is starting to trust me.
My mom Anna's mediating activity is irreplaceable.
Soon my brother Gabriele, who is studying food technologies, will also join us, and then the team will really be complete. Work never stops, not even when we go on vacation or during various breaks, but … we are a Big Family, this is our strength.
Among the most important projects in our business future is certainly the one to increase the area of olive groves and restore those abandoned, which, unfortunately, in our region, Liguria, are many.
Moreover, a project I would like to carry forward is healthy snacking, returning to the old traditions of the past. We are also connected to the world of sports in general and sailing in particular.
With our feet firmly on the ground and our eyes on the future, I definitely think it will be important to grow socially and become increasingly known.
I would like to conclude by summarizing my words with a phrase that represents me, my family, and our activity…”Digging into history for future food”
Alice❤️
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