FRANTOIO OLEARIO FELICE BITETTI
WITH PASSION SINCE 1956
Our family story is a love story
The love for our land and work.
It is a story of Southern Italy, which has been handed down from father to son for four generations, thanks to ancient ties.
“Olives are harvested drupe by drupe” was the saying of the farmers of Ginosa, a town in Puglia with ravines cutting through the landscape and overlooking the Ionian Sea, a stone’s throw from Matera.
This story was handed down to us children, Rosa and Mario Bitetti, who, under the guidance of Felice, our father, supervise the entire production chain, from each single drupe to the oil bottle.
OUR FATHER
Felice Bitetti is the name and surname of our father, a proactive, far-sighted man, dedicated to work, family, and to a professional and committed way of working.
It is the name of a very young boy who, with courage and dedication, embraced and developed the family business.
COURAGE, ENTHUSIASM, PASSION, UNDERTAKING, we believe that these words express the origin of our story.
OUR TRADITION
Our great-grandfather laid the foundations of the work we currently carry out. He dealt with the trading of the main agricultural products of the Ginosa countryside, for which our area is suited, such as olives, almonds, cereals, and citrus fruits.
At the end of the 1950s our grandfather Mario, together with his brothers, decided to establish an oil mill for the production of olive oil. This initiative was born from the desire to keep the final product of their work – the oil – in the local territory, thus avoiding to sell the local olives to the traders and millers of neighbouring areas.
The first oil mill, established in the heart of Ginosa, was later moved to via Matera.
Finally, in 1996 our oil mill was moved to via Bernalda, where it is still operational today.
In this location, we children – Rosa and Mario – become familiar with the oil world from an early age, playing hide- and-seek among the many sacks full of olives, neatly arranged in the oil mill warehouse, so tidily as to create small paths fit for a child.
Over the years Felice invested in the improvement of the facility structures and plant systems.
The old presses were replaced by a modern continuous cycle system, essential for the qualitative (organoleptic and chemical-physical) improvement of the extra virgin olive oil.
In our plant, extra virgin olive oil is produced with scrupulous care, as if every bottle were to end up on the demanding table of Felice, Rosa and Mario. They constantly strive to preserve the natural genuineness and quality of their extra virgin olive oil, one of the most genuine products offered by nature.
Extra virgin olive oil is obtained with the use of a simple extraction system. To obtain an excellent oil it is not necessary to add adjuvants, preservatives or other agents. Indeed, what it is necessary is careful care of the olive grove, harvest, processing times and methods, storage and packaging.
