Aeolian capers receive PDO status

Aeolian capers receive PDO status

About 650 tons of delicious flower buds are collected every year on the seven beautiful Sicilian islands

Not only the beautiful Aeolian Islands, off the northern coast of Sicily, are listed as UNESCO’s World Heritage Site, now they can also boast their own ‘Protected Designation of Origin‘ (PDO) product.

Capers from the Aeolian islands are among the best in the world. And their authenticity is protected by the Aeolian Consortium.

capers-green
The Aeolian capers

Thanks to the work of the sixty companies that constituted  the Consortium, the European Union officially granted Aeolian capers the PDO status

Caper bushes are cultivated in all the seven islands of the archipelago: Lipari, Vulcano, Filicudi, Alicudi, Panarea, Stromboli, and Salina. However, most of the about 600-700 tons of flower buds collected each year come from the latter. The ground, the cultivation, the air, the method of preservation, make Aeolian capers a unique and unrepeatable product. Which is the protagonists of the local cuisine: capers in salads, with pasta, with meat, with fish, with vegetables, with snacks or, simply, on their own. Moreover, on top of being delicious, capers have several curative properties. They kindled appetite, lower blood pressure and cholesterol, and even mitigated toothache. They are also said to be aphrodisiac.

Aldo Natoli, President of the Aeolian Consortium, expressed satisfaction for this achievement. He said: “In this way, our product achieves a first and important goal” because the recognition testifies the typicality of the capers whose characteristics are inextricably linked to the Aeolian environment and  territory.

Ilona Catani Scarlett