Filippo Berio (Salov SpA) rewards talent in the agri-food sector: scholarship awarded to a student of the Master’s Program in Food Quality Management and Communication

01 July 2025  - Corporate

Filippo Berio (Salov SpA) rewards talent in the agri-food sector: scholarship awarded to a student of the Master’s Program in Food Quality Management and Communication

Vecchiano (PI), 2 July 2025 – For the third consecutive year, Filippo Berio renews its commitment to supporting education in the agri-food sector. The brand of Salov SpA – an industrial group among the world’s leading players in the olive oil industry – has awarded a scholarship within the Master’s Program in Food Quality Management and Communication of the Department of Economics and Management at the University of Pisa.

The award ceremony took place yesterday, 2 July, in the evocative setting of Villa Filippo Berio – the company’s historic agricultural estate in Vecchiano – in the presence of Professor Angela Tarabella, Director of the Master’s Program, and Dr. Emanuele Siena, Marketing Director at Salov.

The scholarship was awarded to Dario Ferrari, one of the most outstanding students of the tenth edition of MasterFood, a high-level training program aimed at creating new professionals capable of combining quality, sustainability, and communication in the food industry.

“Supporting the education of young talents is, for us, a concrete investment in the future of the agri-food sector,” said Dr. Emanuele Siena, Marketing Director at Salov. “This partnership reflects the core values of our company: innovation, social responsibility, and attention to the territory. We are proud to help develop new expertise that will bring value to the entire supply chain.”

The Master’s Program involved 13 students from across Italy, offering a multidisciplinary curriculum structured around three key areas – Food Manager, Executive Manager in the Restaurant Industry, and Food Sustainability Manager – combining skills in nutrition, agri-food law, business economics, marketing, and communication, with a particular focus on food quality and safety.

In addition, through practical activities such as cost analysis, business plan preparation, role-playing, and the strategic use of social media, the program provides students with essential tools to understand and address the complex dynamics of agri-food companies.

“The meeting between the advanced training of the University of Pisa and the company Salov SpA is certainly an example of how to bring together research and the business world,” said Professor Angela Tarabella, Director of the Master in Food Quality Management and Communication. “Thanks to these fruitful collaborations, it is possible to support the most deserving students and provide the business sector with well-trained professionals capable of tackling future challenges in the agri-food market.”

The collaboration between Salov SpA and the University of Pisa demonstrates the company’s concrete and ongoing commitment to supporting high-level educational and research institutions, with the aim of strengthening its connection with the local area and actively contributing to the training of future managers. Salov, deeply rooted in the province of Lucca, recognizes the region not only as the place of its origins but also as a cultural and professional heritage to preserve, support, and cultivate.

SALOV SpA was founded in 1919 thanks to Giovanni Silvestrini, long-time business partner of Filippo Berio, founder of the eponymous brand, together with a group of entrepreneurs from Lucca. The company quickly became a point of reference for the Lucca area worldwide. Salov is headquartered in Massarosa, in the province of Lucca, and is one of the largest companies in the olive oil sector, with consolidated net revenues of around 518 million euros in 2023 and 105 million liters sold. Since 2015, it has been part of the international Bright Food Group.

The Salov Group has long been active in the Italian market with its historic brand Sagra and, at the end of 2019, launched the Filippo Berio brand in Italy for the first time—a brand with more than 150 years of history, present worldwide and a market leader in the USA and the UK, as well as in Belgium, Switzerland, and Hong Kong.
In Italy, Filippo Berio offers a dedicated product range, designed to meet the needs of increasingly demanding consumers in terms of quality and, above all, traceability and sustainability. Thanks to the Berio Method, every stage of the production process is traced and certified, starting from the fields and the implementation of sustainable integrated-production techniques.