A century-long tale
By Nicola Corrias
Olive-growing has always played an important role in my family as a source of sustenance and income like for many other families of Bonarcado. Around the 1930s, my father’s great-grandfather Antonio, who already owned some olive groves around Bonarcado and Seneghe, decided to start the first mill to grind his own olives and those of others. Of the installation with basalt grindstones and presses, only the grindstones remain (on display outside of the mill) along with some old black and white photos, as a testimony to the past. It is in this plant, that my father Antonio first became a Frantoiano (mill director), inheriting dedication and passion for this work from his father Giuseppe and his mother Giovanna.
A few years later, my father Antonio was a witness to and participant in the most important technological leap made in the last century in the field of olive oil extraction: the introduction of continuous cycle plants with a centrifugal extractor.
In the face of the skepticism of many “purists” and lovers of the traditional press system, he sensed that this technology would bring innumerable benefits for working techniques and the final product. For this reason, he pushed for the renewal of the plant with insistence and tenacity.
So it was that at the end of the 60s, the new Veraci continuous cycle plant – among the first in Sardinain – was started in a building built specially for it on the outskirts of the town of Bonarcado. For the next 30 years this plant worked at full capacity during the oil season with peaks in production.
It was on the basis of this several-year experience that in 1990, my father Antonio decided to begin a new activity which was even more modern and dynamic, able to adapt to the innovations that new technology can offer but with its roots firmly anchored in tradition.
Agricor was born from this idea, with a plant built in the municipality of Riola Sardo in order to meet the growing demands of Sinis olive growers. The company operated here for almost 10 years before returning to its natural home, Bonarcado.
The new company center, on the green slopes of Montiferru, is just a few kilometers from the town of Bonarcado, with an view towards the Campidano plain and the sea. It can count 1000 square meters of covered area and a modern continuous cycle Pieralisi plant able to work up to 30 quintals/hour. Here we offer our services to the Montiferru and Sinis olive growers and we also press our own olives to bring you our oil.
Today, almost thirty years after the birth of Agricor, my father Antonio, helped by my mother Nunzia and my sister Cristina, carries on this tradition with passion, driven by the desire to improve and offer to others what he can do best: olive oil!