 The Clemente family has nurtured a close relationship
with olive oil since the last decade of the 19th century.
As both great grandfathers worked in the cooking oil
trade, it was easy for their offspring, Michele and
Eleonora, to meet and decide to wed a few years later.
Employed in the same trade as his father and sharing
the same love and enthusiasm characteristic of all
members of the family working in this field, Michele
soon embarked on his own career. The eminent Italian
company Sasso di Imperia hired him as buyer for the
whole Gargano region and gave him the important task
of tasting and selecting oils that Sasso would pack in
its famous cans.
Many years later, as in the previous two generations, Michele's eldest son,
Berardino, decided to follow in his father's footsteps.He soon became an AIMA
taster for the Italian food industry federation, Federconsorzi, renowned for its
advisory and supervisory role on behalf of other leading companies in the olive
oil business. His wide-ranging experience acquired in the tasting and selection
of premium cooking oils persuaded Berardino to exploit an Apulian olive oil that
had previously successfully produced in other regions, and set up his own
business, bottling an oil branded Clemente.
Carla, Michele, Ilenia, Antonello
It remains the first and only product to
come exclusively from the luxuriant and
multifaceted Gargano National Park.
Despite Berardino's premature departure,
under his son Michele's leadership supported
by three of his five siblings, Antonello, Carla
and Ilenia, Olearia Clemente has since
1983 managed, albeit with great sacrifice,
to earn the loyalty of all customers who
had placed their trust in Berardino.
Today Olearia Clemente is a focal point of all olive oil millers and olive growers
inthe Gargano region who rely on an enterprise that has enjoyed a symbiotic
bond with olive oil through four generations.
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