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<pre>> I went today to the Gingin ( town 1 hour north of Perth) with the
> expectation of gaining some simple info on a question I have had for quite
> some while. I want to know how much land to buy to start a small olive
> grove with the intention in some 7 - 10 years time to supply fruit to the
> local industry. How much land? Obviously a primary financial question,
but
> getting any answers proved harder than I thought, no matter how I put it.


Bill,

Interesting question, and to be honest, not the easiest one to answer
definitively, but I'll have a go for you.

Work on the assumption that an olive tree will yield around 40kg of fruit
once mature (at 8/10 years) and will yield more than that under good
conditions, but being sufficiently pessimistic to only budget for a low
crop.
40kg of olives per tree ... but what will you do with the fruit? There is
currently a high demand for oil making olives, and expect to receive about
$1 per kilo for your fruit. The demand for pickling olives is lower, but
they do sell (if in perfect condition) for around $3 per kilo.
It is probably wise to avoid being tempted by the "multi-purpose" olives
(here in the Hunter Valley of NSW we have had some serious problems making
oil out of Manzanillo) and settle for the best possible species for your
project.

If you do decide to go for oil, and decide to plant (for example) Frantoio
you may need to plant another species as a pollinator. Plenty of people on
this group can advise you about this aspect.

How many trees? Okay, at 40kg per tree and 250 trees to the hectare (spacing
of 8m x 5m or thereabouts) should give you 10 tonnes per year, or $10,000
income per hectare. How much income do you want to generate, and how much
work are you going to do yourself, or pay somebody do for you.

10 hectares planted ... $100,000 a year income ... yourself and one other
full time employee, repay bank loan, picking costs, council rates, power,
diesel, equipment costs, irrigation costs....

Or do you intend you buy your own press, make your own oil and market it
yourself?

Sorry, but there is no easy answer, but I hope these figures give you a bit
of an idea of the variables. If you would like me to do a more detailed
study for you, please get in touch off the list at
mike.wilson@hunterlink.net.au and I'll go into more detail.

Regards,

Mike Wilson.
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