Olives101.com

Scientists are trying to catalogue hundreds of olive trees, some more than 1,000 years old, on the Greek island of Crete in a bid to save them from abandonment amid falling olive prices, an agronomy institute said on Wednesday. Olives have for centuries been a Cretan staple and a major source of income but falling […]

By Julie R. Johnson, Officials are scratching their heads as to why this year’s olive crop is the pits. “The crop looked really good early on,” said Doug Compton, assistant commissioner of the Tehama County Agriculture Department. “But then we began hearing reports of poor fruit set from olive growers.” Across the state, Tehama County […]

By Geoff Johmson, The local olive oil industry is expected to boom over the coming years, but California has seen better olive harvests than 2008. As the state’s olive crop comes in, it appears an April frost and a May heat wave have knocked California’s olive crop to less than half of that of 2007. […]

By Dan Bryant, Mechanical harvesting research in California olives during the 2007 season documented greater efficiency with hedgerows over traditional trees, according to Louise Ferguson, University of California, Davis Extension specialist in pomology. Ferguson explained the 2007 trial results and plans for the 2008 harvest research during a Central California olive day at Exeter recently. […]

A 20% increase in olive oil production is likely to present a marketing challenge for the country’s olive growers. Grower organisation Olives New Zealand says groves in Hawke’s Bay, Wairarapa, Kapiti, Nelson and Marlborough performed better than those in Canterbury and the Far North, mainly because of variable weather conditions. Executive officer Alastair Bridge says […]