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<pre>Dear All

I am back from my travels in Crete and Italy and especially the
conference in Bari where some 400 of us talked about olives for 5 days
solid.

I have not had the opportunity to read the article in the Olive Grower
as yet. Like Australia similar questions are being addressed. One of
which is the accurate identification and performance of cultivars. It
was patently clear that the DNA technolgy is questionable and no
industry standard exists. Also the morphlogical features of trees and
fruit are still very important in the identification of varieties.
Authentification of olive oils was also on the agenda. Techniques from
examination of cloudy residues with DNA technology to Gas Chromatography
of the fatty acids and other minor components to Nuclear Magnetic
Resonance of whole oils to typify the regions and cultivars.

Sounds like hi-tech compared to the stress in the trees and the shallow
roots.

However at the end of the end I have no doubt that Australian growers
will be proficient in producing quality olives! What I see is the main
problem will be the marketing of the olives and olive oil. Towards this
the Italians my interpretation is that they have made the right moves.
Maybe there is a lesson here.

¥ firstly they they are unable to physically produce the volumes of
olive oil of Spain, Tunisia and soon Argentina that are needed for the
export markets.

¥ they appear to have then concentrated on the quality end of olive oil
- their flagships - Tuscany, Umbria and Liguria

¥ now even the Italian growers who have traditionally produced the bulk
of the Italian Oil - Apulia, Calabria and Sicily are talking of
improving the quality of their oil if they are to survive - at one farm
the owner was talking of the higher grades within the extra virgin grade

¥ Much of the effort is now not in growing olives - but the technology
associated with food standards ie chemical quality, purity, trueness to
label, blending etc. and the marketing and distribution

¥ the net result is that the Italian Olive industry can handle both its
own olive oil and that of others.

The subject of genetic engineering was not on the agenda.

Stan Kailis
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