Australian Olive Growers Begin Harvest With Mixed Expectations

Summary

Australian olive grow­ers are expe­ri­enc­ing var­ied crop out­comes, with some begin­ning to har­vest early due to low yields while oth­ers plan to start in April. Adverse weather con­di­tions dur­ing flow­er­ing have impacted pro­duc­tion across the coun­try, lead­ing to sup­ply and demand issues and higher prices for olive oil. Despite these chal­lenges, some pro­duc­ers are opti­mistic about the upcom­ing har­vest, with expec­ta­tions of good yields in cer­tain regions.

Due to low crop yields, some Australian grow­ers have started har­vest­ing ear­lier. However, oth­ers have reported more favor­able out­comes and are plan­ning to begin pick­ing their olives in April.

Michael Southan, the chief exec­u­tive of the Australian Olive Association, con­firmed that the har­vest will be slightly down from last year.

“In some areas, flow­er­ing was good, but the fruit set was not so good,” he told Olive Oil Times. ​“The large groves look like they will have expected yields.”

“The main chal­lenges will be the peren­nial ones of hav­ing the avail­abil­ity of con­tract har­vesters for the smaller groves and con­tract proces­sors,” he added.

Amanda Bailey, a com­mit­tee mem­ber of the Australian Olive Oil Association, con­firmed that some pro­duc­ers were affected by adverse weather con­di­tions dur­ing flow­er­ing, fluc­tu­a­tions in tem­per­a­ture and other envi­ron­men­tal vari­ables.

She said this had reduced crops across many of Australia’s olive-grow­ing regions. The Australian Olive Oil Association esti­mated pro­duc­tion at 18 to 19 mil­lion liters in the pre­vi­ous crop year.

“The chal­lenge of a light crop year in Australia extends beyond the imme­di­ate impact on fruit pro­duc­tion,” Bailey said. ​“It also has sig­nif­i­cant impli­ca­tions for other sec­tors, notably the bulk indus­try that dri­ves export sup­ply and food ser­vice.”

According to data from the International Olive Council, Australia exported 2,000 tons of olive oil in the 2022/23 crop year, a sec­ond-con­sec­u­tive decline from the country’s record high of 4,000 tons in 2020/21.

“Due to a light crop year in Australia, some pro­duc­ers have already started their har­vest­ing machines and com­menced pro­cess­ing the ini­tial lots of fruit,” Bailey said.

She pointed out that the scarcity of fruit yields trans­lates into sup­ply and demand issues, cre­at­ing a domino effect across mar­kets.

“As a result of the reduced fruit sup­ply, in Australia, there is vir­tu­ally no bulk olive oil sup­ply avail­able, lead­ing to a fur­ther imbal­ance between sup­ply and demand,” Bailey said. ​“Consequently, we expect higher prices to per­sist as pro­duc­ers grap­ple with the dimin­ished avail­abil­ity of olive oil.”

“The reper­cus­sions of the light crop year rever­ber­ate, and in response, pro­duc­ers are tak­ing this time to eval­u­ate prun­ing strate­gies to enhance tree resilience for future crops,” Bailey added.

She said this year’s reduced crop, com­ing off a few bumper har­vests, rep­re­sented oppo­site ends of the spec­trum regard­ing pro­duc­tion; both sce­nar­ios have sig­nif­i­cant impli­ca­tions for pro­duc­ers, mar­kets and con­sumers.

“Bumper crop years result in increased sup­ply, lower prices and eco­nomic stim­u­la­tion, whereas light crop years lead to reduced yields, higher prices and finan­cial chal­lenges for pro­duc­ers,” Bailey said. ​“It will be inter­est­ing to see how it all unfolds. Producers need to ensure that their oil can be stretched as far as pos­si­ble through­out sup­ply chains to gain max­i­mum return.”

Richard Seymour, the gen­eral man­ager of Mount Zero Olives, a com­pany that sources olives across Victoria and South Australia, told Olive Oil Times that he was expect­ing to begin receiv­ing green Cerignola table olives for fer­men­ta­tion in mid-March and to launch an early har­vest Picual extra vir­gin olive oil in April.

“Talking to our key grow­ers, we expect this har­vest to be okay but down on last sea­son,” Seymour said. ​“This is largely due to frost in some grow­ing areas just before flow­er­ing.”

“The chal­lenge is all to do with the ongo­ing sup­ply and pric­ing chal­lenge cur­rently fac­ing the global indus­try,” he added. ​“A key focus of our busi­ness is the sup­ply into the food­ser­vice sec­tor, and I am not sure how the sec­tor will take another 25 per­cent price rise.”

Meanwhile, Australia’s largest pro­ducer, Cobram Estate, plans to start har­vest­ing in mid-April if the weather con­di­tions are as expected.

“The 2024 crop sea­son is shap­ing up well, with ini­tial esti­mates in line with expec­ta­tions,” Leandro Ravetti, the company’s co-chief exec­u­tive and mas­ter miller, said. ​“It is impor­tant to remem­ber that this is a lower-yield­ing crop year on many of our Australian groves and that final yields are sub­ject to the nor­mal risks asso­ci­ated with agri­cul­tural pro­duc­tion.”

“Flowering for the 2024 crop com­menced in mid-October on Cobram’s Australian groves, with full bloom at our Boundary Bend grove occur­ring dur­ing the last week of October and dur­ing the first week of November at our Boort grove,” he added. ​“This was just a few days ear­lier than the long-term aver­age.”

Ravetti said the com­pany also antic­i­pates lower flow­er­ing in some parts of its Boort olive groves than they ini­tially expected, off­set by larger-than-expected crops else­where.

He attrib­uted the lat­ter to the wet­ter-than-aver­age start of the crop year (from October to September) and other favor­able con­di­tions expe­ri­enced in Australia dur­ing the flow­er­ing period.

Also in Victoria, Cape Schanck Olive Estate from the country’s Mornington Peninsula expects a good har­vest this year.

“It looks like the trees are quite heav­ily laden with fruit,” co-owner Stephen Tham said. ​“With about three months to go before we har­vest, they are devel­op­ing nicely. Disease pres­sure on the trees, pre­dom­i­nantly sooty mold, does not appear to be a con­cern so far. We antic­i­pate that the har­vest will likely sur­pass the pre­vi­ous year.”

Tham said that despite the Bureau of Meteorology pre­dict­ing a dry, hot sum­mer due to El Niño after three years of wet weather, they are in the mid­dle of sum­mer, which has not come to pass.

“Late spring and early sum­mer have seen us drenched by rain reg­u­larly, par­tic­u­larly in the east­ern and north-east­ern states and to a lesser extent down south in Victoria,” Tham said. ​“Our Christmas saw the heav­i­est rain­fall. Temperatures have not been too hot since. Fortunately, the drench­ing occurred after the fruit set, and we did not lose too much.”