Article by Matteo Donelli
A mix of highly unusual factors that have turned out to be "pillars" of a novel of a passionate and winning private and productive life.
We are at the end of the seventies, the young Karl Egger leaves his homeland, Munich, to move to southern Tuscany. In love with those landscapes, but above all with Italian food and wines.
Light years away from the current market trends of organic productions, the young Karl had made in-depth studies on how intensive agriculture was heavily impoverishing the soils in Europe.
Coming from a wealthy family, he decides he wants to pursue the mission of defending the quality of food, directly adopting the advanced studies undertaken in his new mission.
It is determined. Change of life: from Germany to the Maremma where he buys seven hectares of land to grow fruit and vegetables in a natural way. The cottage called "La Selva" will give the name to the farm.
Agronomic knowledge of the highest level directly imparted to the first hires of the company by important Italian and German university professors to set the cultivation of organic agriculture in the best possible way.
It is a forerunner in Italy. The mission is to give the authentic taste of the food of the past.
The preserves start involving several local artisan producers who have the task of transforming the freshly picked vegetables stored in glass jars.
The success is extraordinary especially in Germany where Egger goes to fill a strong demand for bio already locally rooted in the nineties together with very few other farmers.
Always maintaining the balance between the introduction of modern production techniques balanced by careful manual work.
After almost forty years of life, LaSelva still maintains the principles of bio-agriculture processing unchanged even though it has changed the numbers and scenarios deriving from land acquisitions (today the company covers an area of 800 hectares and boasts a wide range of gastronomic specialties but also wine, in fact in 2003 the Cantina LaSelva was established (near the town of Magliano in Toscana) which allows the company to make wine in the territory of the prestigious Morellino di Scansano.
Acquisitions and pioneers of organic gastronomy. There could only be a strong managerial approach on the part of the owner who decided for years to entrust the “helm of LaSelva” to Christian Stivaletti, a food technologist who since 2013 has already been employed in the company as a quality manager.
Today at the head of a company that during the summer peaks reaches over 100 employees and a turnover of 13 million euros, with his words he focuses on the passion of his collaborators on the pleasure of sharing with the customer the taste of the harvested fruits and processed. But above all, respect for the earth.
“Nothing is removed and nothing added”.
Most of the products are free of gluten, yeast and lactose. The product portfolio includes nearly 200 organic and vegan specialties and 18 13 wines.
2020 was a record year that marked an increase in turnover of + 30% thanks above all to the German market, explains Stivaletti, where LaSelva products have now become at home for Germans accustomed to increasingly massive purchases in grocery stores and organic supermarkets.
“Indulging in highly controlled and organic foods or wines with ancient flavors is a pampering that during this difficult year has seen many new consumers. We have had very strong increases in turnover in various areas of the globe such as Japan, USA, UK and Eastern countries, which suggest that high quality foods are becoming a must also for the new generations ”explains Stivaletti.
A new world that goes towards the rediscovery of the pleasure of being at the table, of sharing with loved ones and friends flavors that the modern pre-Pandemic world often canceled with its frenzy and little respect for local flavors. LaSelva embodies in her soul this new way of loving life made up of important details such as high quality nutrition.
