Against the Odds, Colombia’s Only Olive Farm Turns to Tourism

Summary

Huerto Olivanto in Villa de Leyva, Colombia is the coun­try’s only func­tion­ing olive farm, pro­duc­ing mod­est quan­ti­ties of extra vir­gin olive oil despite chal­lenges such as unpre­dictable weather and low yields com­pared to Mediterranean regions. The farm has iden­ti­fied three suc­cess­ful olive vari­eties and has turned its oper­a­tion into an oleo­tourism ven­ture, sell­ing high-qual­ity olive oil to tourists and poten­tially expand­ing to spe­cialty retail­ers and super­mar­kets in the future.

Situated in Villa de Leyva, a rel­a­tively dry stretch of the Andes Mountains about three hours north of Bogotá, Colombia’s only func­tion­ing olive farm has man­aged to over­come the sub­trop­i­cal cli­mate to pro­duce mod­est quan­ti­ties of extra vir­gin olive oil.

“It turns out that in Villa de Leyva… is the only place in Colombia where the cli­mate makes olive cul­ti­va­tion pos­si­ble,” said William Cortés, owner of Huerto Olivanto.

Olive trees were intro­duced to Colombia cen­turies ago by the Spanish con­quis­ta­dores. However, most were planted in unsuit­able regions and later aban­doned.

“Olive trees arrived in Villa de Leyva long ago, but in the last cen­tury, more than half were lost and olive pro­duc­tion stopped,” Cortés said. ​“There are trees here as old as 200 years, and pos­si­bly one or two approach­ing 400, though not all are well doc­u­mented.”

Over the decades, more than 70 vari­eties were brought to Colombia for plant­ing and graft­ing.

“Out of those 70 vari­eties, maybe ten or twelve bear fruit, but only every three years and in very small quan­ti­ties – a pound or two, just a hand­ful of olives – so they’re not truly pro­duc­tive,” Cortés said.

His father, Antonio María Cortés Robles, led much of this research and even­tu­ally iden­ti­fied the three most suc­cess­ful vari­eties: Arbosana, Picual and an adapted cul­ti­var known as Levanto.

“We’ve tem­porar­ily named it Levanto while we iden­tify it genet­i­cally with Parma University. That result should be ready later this year,” Cortés explained. ​“We believe this vari­ety may have char­ac­ter­is­tics of ace­buche, the wild olive.”

Even these bet­ter-per­form­ing vari­eties yield far less in Colombia than in Mediterranean regions. In a good year, Cortés esti­mates about 10 kilo­grams of olives per tree — com­pared with 40 to 60 kilo­grams in parts of Europe.

“The olive trees don’t pro­duce like in Europe, nei­ther in quan­tity nor fre­quency, but they do bear fruit,” he said. ​“Production isn’t large; it’s quite small per tree.”

Villa de Leyva’s sub­trop­i­cal high­land cli­mate is the country’s most suit­able for olive grow­ing, yet it dif­fers sharply from Mediterranean con­di­tions.

The region receives roughly 1,500 mil­lime­ters of rain each year — far less than many Colombian regions but more than dou­ble that of most Mediterranean olive-grow­ing areas.

Most rain falls from November to April, fol­lowed by drier months last­ing from June to October. This pat­tern, Cortés said, allows a small har­vest in October or November.

Beyond rain­fall, tem­per­a­tures remain sta­ble year-round, giv­ing the trees very few chill hours, which olives need to flower and fruit. ​“The vari­eties that adapt best are those requir­ing fewer chill hours,” Cortés said.

Economic pres­sures also weigh heav­ily on the oper­a­tion. Imported olive oil sells cheaply, and har­vest­ing is labor-inten­sive.

“Harvesting is done by hand, like cof­fee, so labor and main­te­nance costs are high,” Cortés said. ​“Profitability isn’t guar­an­teed. Even though green olive oil fetches a good price – about 30,000 Colombian pesos (€7) per kilo­gram – the cli­mate plays the deci­sive role.”

Some years bring long dry spells dur­ing flow­er­ing, result­ing in almost no fruit set. In other years, heat waves elim­i­nate the few chill hours the trees would typ­i­cally receive.

“This makes pro­duc­tion unpre­dictable. We depend entirely on the weather,” he said.

Huerto Olivanto now has three hectares of groves, a nurs­ery and facil­i­ties for olive oil tast­ings.

“We have a nurs­ery where we prop­a­gate and sell these vari­eties so peo­ple can plant trees that are at least pro­duc­tive,” Cortés said. ​“But ​‘pro­duc­tive’ doesn’t nec­es­sar­ily mean ​‘prof­itable,’ since yields are smaller here.”

“The trees also grow faster and taller due to the high light inten­sity,” he added. ​“They must be pruned reg­u­larly; oth­er­wise they reach 12 meters or more.”

Because of these chal­lenges, the farm has only achieved a few suc­cess­ful har­vests.

“We’ve made olive oil only three times, when we had slightly larger har­vests,” he said. ​“We’re not con­sis­tent pro­duc­ers – quan­ti­ties are small, more a curios­ity than a busi­ness. But the oil we’ve pro­duced is excel­lent: high-alti­tude groves give oils richer in antiox­i­dants and polyphe­nols.”

“When we do make it, we sell it unfil­tered in small bot­tles to vis­it­ing tourists,” he added. ​“We’ve turned what used to be an olive pro­duc­tion project into an oleo­tourism ven­ture. The oil sells eas­ily, at about five times the price of reg­u­lar olive oil in Colombia, in 100-mil­li­liter bot­tles pre­sented as an arti­sanal prod­uct.”

In years with­out olives, Cortés imports extra vir­gin olive oil from coop­er­a­tives in Jaén and pro­duc­ers in Catalonia, seek­ing bit­ter, pun­gent pro­files to sell at the farm and poten­tially through spe­cialty retail­ers.

“Our goal is to bring in fresh oil – har­vested that same year – with­out inter­me­di­aries or blends, as is com­mon with imported brands,” he said.

“Our olive oil will be priced slightly higher than most on the mar­ket because we don’t import large vol­umes,” Cortés added. ​“That’s why we’re start­ing with spe­cialty shops and, in the medium term, aim to enter super­mar­kets once we’ve built brand recog­ni­tion.”