Olives101.com

By Chloe Warburton,
Harvest time usually conjures up images of workers picking olives over the space of a long day, but technology has created a new and quick way to bring the crops in.
Max Boyle, owner and manager of Oil Hydraulics in Shepparton, has hit the jackpot with his OCCA Olive Harvester, a machine that [...]

By Stephanie Oswald,

Ollo Extra Virgin olive oil, at just $11 per bottle, is a fabulous hostess gift, and something to keep on hand in your own cupboard.
I must admit, when I was invited to “slurp” olive oil out of a special glass while lunching at the Ritz-Carlton in downtown Atlanta, I was a bit skeptical.
This [...]

It’s been 11 years since Skarmoutsos decided to embrace his family heritage and become an olive farmer.
Mr Skarmoutsos owns Ambrosia Olive Farm, Eltons Road, Silverdale.
He bought it in 1997 as a bare 40 acre property.
Within two years he had covered it with 4000 olive trees.
Mr Skarmoutsos said his family had been growing olives in the [...]

By Melinda,
The international olive industry is one step closer to implementing regulations that will support fair exports and consumers interest.
The step follows a hot topic session coordinated by the Australian Olive Association (AOA) at the American Oil Chemists Society (AOCS) annual meeting held in Seattle, USA, on 20 May.
Paul Miller, president of the AOA, was [...]

Consumers may pay less for Australian olive oil after a bumper Victorian olive harvest. There was no harvest in many Victorian olive groves last year because of the drought.
Olive grower Richard Baum says a third of his trees will provide enough product to supply his markets.
“Probably the good news for consumers is that, given the [...]

Olive thieves struck again.
The Amenduni Australian Olive Expo’s grove holds 200 olive trees, all of which have been stripped of their fruits due to be harvested before the October display.
The Hunter Valley, NSW, has also been hit recently.
The ACT grove is surrounded by security fences, which are more than one-metre high and have barbed wire [...]

A number of olive groves in the Lower Hunter have nothing to harvest this year because of widespread damage from the olive lace bug.
Mike Wilson from the Hunter Olive Growers Association says the weather this year has been a major factor in the spread of the bug, which he estimates has destroyed at least 100 [...]

Boundary Bend Limited, based in north-western Victoria, says it doesn’t make financial sense to put new plantings in Australia, while water prices are high and reliability of water is low.
Rob McGavin from Boundary Bend says there are some advantages to farming overseas.
“The land and water package in Argentina is less than ten per cent of [...]

By Michelle Fenech,
It’s harvest season for olive growers in Wollondilly with Danny and Aydin Fahri having more than 20 tonnes to crop.
Mr Fahri said he was getting good quality olives this year after recent rainfall in the shire.
“Usually my trees don’t look so healthy,” he said.
“And I’ve never had a full dam at the end [...]

It is like something out of a science fiction movie.
Four Lovedale olive groves have been completely cleared of this year’s crop, apparently overnight, with not a trace of vehicle movement, sound of machinery heard, and barely an olive to be found.
Between Wilderness Grove, Warraroong Estate, Sandalyn Estate and Zephyr Ridge, about 750 olive trees have [...]

By Suellen Jerrard,
Olive oil production in West Australia is expected to slow this year for the first time since the fledgling industry got off the ground about a decade ago.
Falls in production around the State are being attributed to the tendency for olive trees to fruit to their full potential only every second year as [...]

The region’s olive trees are bursting with fruit this year, after a low yield in 2007 due to drought.
The olive industry is looking up for Eyre Peninsula, with a record amount of olives, according to olive press operator and olive grower Peter Green.
Mr Green started harvesting his olives with the mechanical harvester he part-owns last [...]

As South Australia endures the 15th day of its heatwave, Eyre Peninsula olive growers are battling in the lead up to next month’s harvest.
At Lincoln Olive View Estate, production is expected to drop by as much as 10,000 tonnes, with some trees bearing just a few kilos of olives.
Grower Kevin Burner says he must make [...]

By Callum Jones,
Olive farming is not usually associated with Northampton, but one resident has received national recognition in Australia for producing an award-winning olive oil.
Chris Perkins, aged 59, of Kingsthorpe, was brought up in an agricultural family in the Australian state of Victoria but came back to England when he was a teenager.
Since then he [...]

By Shane Starling,
Australian olive leaf extract pioneer, Olive Products Australia (OPA), has gained a European-first distribution deal in the UK for its high-antioxidant liquid supplement.
While olive leaf extracts already exist on the European market - predominantly in cosmeceutical formulations as well as teas and pill-form food supplements - OPA’s offering is one of the first [...]

Western Victorian olive groves will yield 1000 per cent more than last year.
Drought in 2007 meant fruit couldn’t set on the trees.
Grove owner Deirdre Baum, from Laharum, says this season the trees are healthy and bearing fruit because of timely rain.
“This year, the trees have had bit of rain at the critical time and so [...]

A Rylstone olive producer says he is on his best trade trip to the United States and has gained contracts from his stand at a San Diego speciality food fair.
Nicholas Bentivoglio is in the US showcasing his Rylstone organic olive oil to more than 16,000 buyers as one of 40 Australian producers at the Fancy [...]

Severe summer storms are rolling across the southern and eastern states, in what is being tipped as one of the biggest weather fronts this year.
In South Australia, olive growers near Pinaroo, in South Australia’s Mallee, have sustained considerable losses, and set their crops back at least two years.
Manager of Barkworth Olive Grove, Ken Schutz says [...]

Struggling olive producer and marketer Olea Australis last night unveiled an $18.75 million deal to sell most of its flagship Dandaragan olive business to investment scheme giant Great Southern.
Olea, which last year restructured its relationship with investors in its olive managed investment schemes, said the sale included the Dandaragan olive groves, buildings and processing equipment [...]

By Martin Watters,
A LARA-based olive oil giant could become Australia’s top farm exporter eights months on from bracing for a potential $5 million disaster.
Boundary Bend limited is an agribusiness national finalist at this year’s Australian Export Awards after recently clinching the Victorian title.
The firm was Australia’s largest extra virgin olive oil supplier and the country’s [...]

By Britt Smith,
A VICTORIAN olive oil company with a Lara estate has won the gong for best exporter at the NAB Agribusiness Awards for Excellence.
Boundary Bend Limited trumped four other finalists, dominating across all categories including quality of marketing plan, product development and profitable entry into a new market.
Boundary Bend’s chairman Rob McGavin said the [...]

An initiative which works to regenerate contaminated mining land by planting olive groves could spread to disused mine sites around the world.
Broken Hill’s Gourmet Products cooperative, in far western New South Wales, is currently calling for investors and has lodged a patent on the regenerating properties of the olive groves which until now has been [...]

The 3rd annual Australian Olive Expo is being held in Canberra next week, with over 2000 people expected to attend.
The Expo serves the olive industry stakeholders by providing a chance for growers to network, explore new equipment and products, and attend educational seminars.
“The exhibition section gives suppliers and growers a real chance to get together [...]

By Sonya Neufeld,
FRAUD. It’s associated with identity theft and bouncing cheques, but apparently it is also rife in the olive oil industry.
Fake olive oil is an international issue, especially in Italy, the world’s leading importer, consumer and exporter of olive oil.
Australia the largest consumer of olive oil per capita outside the Mediterranean is not immune.
Olive [...]

“A Two Day Trade Expo Focusing on the Production, Processing and Marketing of Australian Olives and Olive Oil”
The Australian Olive Expo will be held at Exhibition Park in Canberra on the Tuesday 30th and Wednesday 31st of October 2007.

Over 150 static and working displays
Dedicated olive grove to demonstrate production & harvesting
Free entry [...]