Trudy,

You may well be right and table olives may not be in over supply. I
hope so. The situation at Mt Compass may be different from the national
picture. I do not have up to date figures on what the consumptiom of
table olives is in Oz. Some old PISA figures showed it was 8,700 tonne
in 1993 and rising by about 500 tonnes a year. Perhaps 12,000 tonne?
I'm sure some one has more accurate figures. Production in 1995 was
2,500 tonne. What is a reasonable share of the market? Imports will
always take a big part - once local production gets over 50% the
competion will get tough. That leaves 3,500 tonne. The 1995
production came from 2,000 ha. I am sure those 2,000 ha are producing a
heap more by now and there must be more than 2,000 ha of new planting.
All guesswork but there must be some better guesses out there.

Cheers Brian Chatterton.