Olive Campaign 2023/2024

[Lavanda]

This is not strictly 'gardening' but it is agriculture.

This year the olive harvest is finally underway in Extremadura and the price we are getting for every kilo of olives is an impressive €1.33. Normally, the price hovers around the top end of the 20s and the low end of the 30s. That's in centimos. This year we are getting such a good price as the olive industry is still decimated in Italy and a large area of Andalucia also has the same olive disease. At least that is what we have been told.

Yesterday, while queueing to deposit the first lot of olives in our local co-operativa, we had to pause in the activities while an enormous truck from Cordoba collected olives from the hopper. There is a co-operativa in Cordoba who has bought all our olives. Interesting. I do not know if they will mill for oil or sell the olives on but they will command a great price if they pass the olives off as Andalucian which is crazy, but that's the economics of EU agriculture. In any event, we are very happy with the price we are getting this year.

[Enrique]

Hi Lavanda,

Thanks for Posting.

" every kilo of olives is an impressive €1.33."............the finished product .................. oil will be expensive.

Top grade oil from our local area............ 2020 5ltr €16.25 now 2023 5ltr €36.10

From our records............ 2011 2207 kilo .............2023 66 kilo we would normally average 1500 kilo

Took our "crop" to a mini-mill down the valley and got 11 ltr of oil for the sum of € 11 ........... saved our normal Mill from firing up just for that amount.

Some years back Italian tankers would come to our local mill and take the oil back to Italy.......... a well known Brand would be branded as Italian ... but in the very small print on the label...... blend Italy Greece Spain

With the dropping yeilds many locals have replanted with new stock over the recent years
The "olive disease" stopped at Cabra so east has been spared ................ but past two years hit by lack of Rain.

Will be interesting how Member olive will fair this year.................

[olive]

Spain isnt that good at marketing some products. Olive oil and wine for example.

For years both products have legally been exported in bulk and mixed up to a percentage with local French wine or local Italian oil and then sold on. There is an irony that Bertolini olive oil sold in the UK may well have Spanish oil in it!

It is a very poor harvest in our area. Many trees have absloutely nothing on them. Ours will be about 70% of an average year much to our amusement. The Spanish are very quick to point out deficiciency in your farming techniques……

The spectre of a bad harvest hasnt reduced at all the continued ( tax efficient) investment in new aljibes, bore holes, new tractors, equipment etc. I am sure some producers will be affected but most folk we know still have money for holidays, second even third homes and new cars…..

[olive]

I will give a yield update in March. Our co op has a vast array of tanks to store the oil and sell when the price is good. Smaller co ops have to sell quickly to make space for next month. Our co op processed 1 million kg last year for the first time. Divide that roughly by 5 to give litres of oil. We dont find out final price per kilo till liquidacion in December 2024.

[Lavanda]

We have a small finca and 150 olive trees but not all are productive. This year, we had Spring rains and a steady amount of rain throughout the Autumn so things are good. We collect the olives in small batches only working for three hours a morning (we're too old to do it really) and after three days we have deposited 800 kgs from only 20 trees. Thank goodness the campaign goes on until the end of January as that gives us, and other amateurs, time to get all the olives in.

While in the co-operativa today, to deposit the next lot of olives we have collected, the truck from Cordoba arrived again and went off with another 25,000 kgs of olives — that is the daily amount collected in this area, so far, since the campaign started two weeks ago. Everyone here is very happy but, yes, the price of olive oil will go through the roof and may be the death of the whole industry — who knows.

As for the blended oils, yes, the EU is quite sneaky. I have posted before about Italian tomato sauces for pasta being made in a huge tomato factory not far from where I live. The small print on the label says the product is made to an Italian recipe in the EU. Most people buying certain brands actually think they are Italian, made in that country with Italian tomatoes. Think again.

[gavilan]

have not read anything yet about quality/quantity of olves harvested here ... but did read this year has been the driest in this area since records began in 1961

[Lavanda]

Apparently Jaen, a huge olive producing area, has had a disastrous year due to drought.

[olive]

Ditto Granada. We have had three years of drought and unusual hot temps when the flowers should have set on the trees.

Decent olive oil is now around 60 euros a five litre bottle. The high price may force folk to other fats .

French farmers complaining of the change in climate ( drier and hotter) have been advised to grow olives by the EU!

[Lavanda]

The EU seems to be reactive rather than proactive. Next year we may well have floods and all manner of things.

We are actually starting each day at 0ºC or just below, in freezing fog. We start collecting the olives well wrapped up and in waterproof trousers as the ground is wet with mist. A few hours later the hats and scarves are off and maybe the jackets as well. That still leaves three thermal layers on plus the gloves which never come off. In the 17 years we have been here the weather, give or take a blip, is pretty much the same and constant, year-on-year. Olives are always collected in freezing conditions and by lunchtime it may be sunny. There may be climate change but it's not that apparent here. Yet.

[Wicksey]

Our English neighbours decided to do a half hearted collection of some of their few olives and got a few cratefuls which they took to their friends' local cooperativa near Motril. They were given 5L of oil in exchange which we were surprised at. With the price of oil so high it would be worth harvesting our few next year. Our local oil co-op had run out of oil by June this year and were told to return once pressing starts in Novemeber. So we went a few weeks back and bought a litre of unfiltered oil for 12€. It has trebled in price. This is our 'special' oil used cold for salads and bread only. Ordinary supermarket extra virgin is now around 8€ a litre I think but I still continue to use it for cooking.

[Lavanda]

We have options for oil as well. Last year the olives were few and the price very low. A farmer came and collected the olives and we got 3 x 5 litre bottles of delicious oil. I am down to the last 2 litres now but getting some oil in exchange for a few olives seems a very good deal now it costs so much in the shops.

[olive]

I have cast around co op members dropping at the moment and the rate here is approx 1.50.

On each drop the olives are randomly sampled and converted to oil and that is assumed to be representative of the load. So your 17 cents difference is the margin that the mill owner/ bulk buyer is working with

I wonder if there will be any olive thefts again this year? It amazes me that folk have the brass necks to turn up and whip through someones grove. I guess they follow the 80 20 rule ie quick visit to each tree and get 80% before moving on.

[Lavanda]

€1.50 is very good but, yes, everyone along the chain will want to make some money and even the transport company with the trucks and drivers need to be paid.

Three years ago, in response to olive thefts, we were issued forms by the co-operativa. We we have to fill them out every time we transport olives from our fincas to the co-operativa, or other destination. We have to put down the finca owner's details (us), our name, NIE, location of finca, date of transportation, destination of olives and an estimate of how many kgs of olives we are transporting.

Apparently, in the wider area, whole trailers of olives have been stolen in the past and the thieves just make off with the lot. It typically happened when the trailers were left overnight on the finca after a long day of harvesting and while waiting for the co-operativa to open again the next day. That no longer happens. There are either armed guards (hunters with shotguns) or the trailers are taken into the village into courtyards.

The mind boggles.

[Lavanda]

Just deposited another few hundred kilos and the man who takes them in and has a huge machine thing which cleans and weighs the olives told me that the co-operativa tally, so far, is 800,000 kgs of olives. That's pretty amazing for a tiny place where olives are not the main crop — figs are.The Cordoba truck was collecting again today ...

[Enrique]

Hi Lavanda,
Sounds like you're using a Collection point, many have sprung up here in recent years and supply the Mills with olives to process.

[Lavanda]

For us, the collection point is our local co-operativa who buys the olives from us and then sells them on. There are mills in our area but the co-operativa is not one of them.

[olive]

Few snippets

Our outurn or Feb 22 cmpaign was 1.08 per kilo plus 1% bonus on. Our co op bond.

A neighbour has just completed his 10 fanegas plot( fanega is 6440 sq m) and got 872 kg.
I
I weighed an average Hoji Blanca olive today. 0.6 gm meaning each is worth a cent this year.

[olive]

Our harvest is completed. A bit embarrassing as identical quantity as last year.Average 60 kg per tree. Pretty standard for hill farming trees in this area but poor compared to the modern “ industrial” box hedge type groves.. One tree had over 200 kg. All the trees bordering the road were loaded somewhat embarrassingly hiding the poorer ones behind! Don’t really understand why we did so well. Talking with neighbours we are expecting 70% more per kg over last year.I might buy a new car, Ferrari perhaps. Will have to have a look at Corgis catalogue.