La Bella Di Cerignola

The business complex that houses the Cooperative La Bella di Cerignola dates back to 1886. It is located in Cerignola, the historic food and agricultural center of the Tavoliere delle Puglie plain, at the Santo Stefano company of the counts Pavoncelli. This is a complex of historic buildings built by the Pavoncelli family to host one of the largest industrial agricultural factories of Southern Italy in the nineteenth century. At Santo Stefano great wines were produced, among which the “Santo Stefano” – red wine made from Nero di Troia grapes, the “Mistella” – a fortified wine like port and the wine for the “Compagnie Internationale des Wagons-Lits”. At Santo Stefano they also processed tobacco of the best quality. Among the oils, we mention the Olio d’Oliva delle Grandi Tenute Pavoncelli, made from Coratina olives and marketed in glass bottles and elegant tinplate cans. At Santo Stefano they also processed table olives, marketed in tinplate cans as “Olive da Tavola Aziende Agricole Pavoncelli Cerignola”. Of course, this was the first industrial experience of canned food in the city of Cerignola. Over time, the processing of table olives has assumed such importance as to make Cerignola one of the world’s leading centers for the processing of table olives. In the nineties, after a short period of inactivity, the imposing and historic business complex of Santo Stefano saw a partial restart of the processing activities, in particular of the Bella di Cerignola table olives. This was achieved through the constitution of the cooperative La Bella di Cerignola, whose president is Count Stefano Pavoncelli.