Discover the Accademia Olearia brand: here’s our interview.

The Accademia Olearia  is based on the centuries-old experience of the Fois family, which for several generations has cultivated, harvested, and transformed olives in the agricultural properties surrounding the city of Alghero, in Sardinia (here you can find Sardinian Evo oil). An infinite array of colors and landscapes, sun and mild temperatures all year round, stories and legends of ancient civilizations, the sound of the ancient Catalan language: this is Alghero, where the favorable climate, skilled processing, and a modern mill have been giving life, since the beginning of the 20th century, to the precious fruity extra virgin olive oil of the Accademia Olearia.

The company is currently managed by Giuseppe Fois and his family with dedication and passion, personally overseeing all stages of processing, from cultivation to transformation. It has an area of 200 hectares with about 25,000 olive trees, mainly of the Bosana cultivar, supplemented by the presence of other local and national cultivars, aimed at enhancing and enriching the organoleptic and qualitative characteristics of the oils produced.

Its Extra Virgin Olive Oil is sold and distributed, not only nationally, but also in Europe, Asia, and the United States, bringing the name of Alghero beyond the borders of the Island to represent the excellence of quality productions in Sardinia.

We love these artisans, these producers of unique, certified, and award-winning delicacies: they are real treasures embedded in our Peninsula between seas and mountains and in the most remote streets of villages and countryside. We do not just stop at enjoying their products, but we want to explore more closely the protagonists of this brand. This is why we sent some questions to those who manage the communication with us.

Stay with us to learn about the Accademia Olearia: read the answers!
 

• Who are we talking to?
  Giuseppe Fois, sole administrator.
   
• Is the company family-run? In what year was the company founded and who was the founder?
  The company was founded in 2000 and is family-run, but has existed for over 4 generations. We have managed to date around 1850 as the beginning of certified agricultural activities by our family.
   
• Who was the founder and what was his training or what was the working and professional field he came from if different from the current one?
  The Accademia Olearia was born as a commercial flagship of the productions made by the Fois family. In ancient times, the founders were engaged in agriculture in all its aspects, while over time, as family branches delineated, our side focused mainly on olive growing and viticulture.
   
• What is the real reason or triggering fact behind the birth of this company, and when did it happen?
  There were several reasons, contextualizing to the late '90s, there was a need to detach ourselves from the logic of selling oil in bulk, at that time there were no regulations regarding the product's origin, and the sensitivity towards the quality we expressed back then was not very developed. So we chose to create our own brand and image to directly inform consumers about the level of attention to tradition and quality of our products. Thus, we began this journey in March 2000.
   
• What is your relationship with your land of origin and its uniqueness? And why do you want to tell its story through your products?
  Our relationship with our land of origin is very strong and based on deep respect; we firmly believe in the concept of having the duty to improve the place where we operate, and we strive to do this by preserving and enhancing the local cultivars that represent us and by spreading their peculiarities; we are currently carrying out a project to plant about 100 hectares of olive groves exclusively of native cultivars.
   
• What was the first product you created?
  The first product was called "Producer's Reserve", a bottle that even had a cork stopper back then. This line is still present today and is also certified as Dop Sardegna. It is certainly one of the flagship products of our company and to which we are very attached.
   
• What product do you consider your current "flagship"?
  Our current flagship product is the "Gran Riserva Giuseppe Fois", packaged in an elegant dark bottle with a matte black label image and a stylization of the faces of the giants of Mont'e Prama in gold relief. The product is produced in limited quantities, and represents the union of the best results of each individual cultivar we produce. It is undoubtedly the most elegant product with rich flavor nuances.
   
• And what product has most embodied the pulsating heart, philosophy, and soul of the company throughout its history?
  I should answer with all our productions, but certainly our company is strongly linked to the product with Dop Sardegna certification, which is also the most distributed and known overall.
   
• Talking about today: how much has the company grown since its inception? Can we have some numbers?
  The company has already increased its area by a good 50% in the last 15 years, and is set to increase by another 50% in the near future.
   
• At this moment: more tradition or more innovation?
  Innovation must be a method of enhancing tradition. If we are talking about more performing extraction technologies from a quality perspective, then for us, innovating means improving production processes with the aim of enhancing our olive oil tradition and its biodiversity.
   
• What has been the most important evolution of the company that has brought it to what it is today?
  Evolutions have been numerous over the years and there will always be new ones, but I believe that the key to success has been remaining true to one's philosophy of excellence and the bond with one's territory. To enhance these two aspects, we have equipped ourselves with the most important and innovative techniques for transforming olives into oil and preserving it. All this preceded by a meticulous control of the vegetative processes in agriculture.
   
• Looking to the future: what tomorrow awaits the company? Are there any changes or new evolutionary processes planned?
  As mentioned earlier, we have initiated a significant increase in our olive heritage. Along with this, we are about to double our transformation structure, with particular attention to the care of olive processing and a new facility will include a new storage area with new packaging lines, always in line with new requests also in terms of packaging, all with the watchword of zero impact and sustainability as we have been doing for several years.
   
• Do you plan to create new products?
  The idea is to develop some products in the field of table olives, still from our local supply chain, and traditional natural processing, and a combination of our Dop oils and Sardinian Sop artichokes, to create a product with double certification that represents the value of our local productions.
   
• Having focused on Spaghetti & Mandolino, how important is online sales to you? What has been your past relationship with this sales channel, and how do you see it in the future?
  The world, as we know, has changed significantly and rapidly in the last 2 years or so, but this was a process only accelerated by the pandemic situation. We believe in a strong combination with online sales, as they have the potential to introduce excellent productions of our country even in very remote places on the planet; I would say it is a channel for promoting Italian culture around the world, which can also translate into a cultural and tourism return and visits to our regions. 
   
• Value: what has been, what is today, and what will it be in the future for your company?
  The Value that we want to convey is that of excellence in every form, in terms of product quality, image, and service. Bring high the name of our island and increasingly spread the richness of its traditions and its unique flavors.

S&M