Regional Institute of Wine and Oil

The new director Cusumano, his priorities

One week after taking office, the new director of IRVO, Vincenzo Cusumano, draws his first considerations and launches his priorities: "Recover the economic-financial situation of the institution while maintaining, with a view to rationalization, the institutional activities , promotion and certification of the institution".

In short, not "cuts" but corrections, "because it will be precisely from these promotion, research and certification activities that the institution will find the resources to rise up and move forward". Moreover, the Regional Institute of Wine and Oil “has amply demonstrated its value in the territory and in the wine sector in particular. All this work obviously will not be lost – underlines Cusumano – but enhanced and remodulated, also accelerating the activity undertaken on the PGI certification of Sicilian oil”.

Among the first commitments is in fact that of strengthening the "team" that will carry out field checks and certifications. Just as we will focus on the union of wine and oil with the territory: "It is now well known how much wine acts as a driving force for the territory, we must now put it into practice through new methods and in synergy with the regional agriculture department" .

The new director has very clear ideas and boasts extensive experience in the world of agri-food, particularly in the field of promotion and valorisation of production. Born in '65, he graduated from the University of Palermo in Agricultural Sciences with a specialization in Economics with top marks, and obtained a master's degree in Agri-food Marketing at Formez in Naples. Since 1990, as a young competition winner, he worked for three years in Rome at the Directorate of Community Policies of the Ministry of Agricultural Policies, where he acquired fundamental expertise in community projects and relations with Brussels. He collaborates with important companies in the field of market research. Since 1993 he has worked for the Sicilian Region, as a competition winner, as an expert manager in agri-food marketing, working as a team to promote the typical products of Sicily. Since 2001 he has directed some Areas and Services of the Agriculture Department. He has been a journalist in some national sector newspapers. He also acquires some skills in the sector of humanitarian aid in the international and social fields, coordinating important initiatives and structures. President of the Alcamo Doc wine route association, the first wine route established in Sicily, until February this year.