Mediterranean and Koroneiki varieties for oil appear to have performed better than others under the seasonal difficulties of the recent Australian harvest, according to visiting experts.
Duccio Morozzo della Rocca and Giacomo Betti, principal consultants with the Alfa Laval Olive Oil Team, visited olive processing plants in South Australia recently while monitoring the performance of a new extraction unit installed by Greenfields Olive Oil.
They said that despite the poor season and some processing problems they came across samples of good quality olive oil.
Yields were generally lower than expected and they said that in some cases late rainfall affected the quality.
“It can engulf the fruit with water which can produce an emulsion during the mixing of the olive paste with consequent extraction difficulties and, organoleptically, a less perfumed oil,” Morozzo della Rocca said.
However, given the seasonal obstacles the normal problems of producing oil from table olive varieties such as Kalamata, Manzanillo and Verdale, are compounded, they said.
Their clients are mainly in the Mediterranean basin but their work also takes them to emerging olive regions in South and North America and South Africa.
They say that the olive industry in South America has grown considerably with Chile and Argentina being the most prominent.
Broadacre olive tree plantings in California were intensifying, even though, like in Australia, wine is economically still a more important primary product, they said.
