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<pre>I agree with you John - I bow out gracefully!

Phil
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<pre>Phil, there is no suggestion of paying lower rates - how would your yields
compare as between mechanical and hand picking? If it is 70kg. per tree
mechanical, what is it for hand-picking? Where does quality fit in the
equation?Do you try to serve the cold-pressed quality table oil market as
well as the rest of the oil product market, for example, using the same
standards of production in both cases? Similarly with the fruit you market
for eating? Mechanical for olives is not dissimilar to mechanical for
grapes - the difference in the end product compared to hand picking is there
for all to see and taste. You pays yer money and you takes yer choice.
Edward
-----Original Message-----
From: Phil Bramley <bramleyp@one.net.au>
To: OliveOil@onelist.com <OliveOil@onelist.com>
Cc: Alan Watt <wattmeyer@one.net.au>
Date: 04 August 1999 0:33
Subject: RE: [OliveOil] supply of trees


>From: "Phil Bramley" <bramleyp@one.net.au>
>
>Edward, the one thing missing in your utopian suggestion of using
>unemployed/indigenous labour is government beauracracy and obfuscation!
>
>In Australia you cannot pay labour less than the award rate. In the case of
>casual fruit pickers I think that this is around $12 per hour. How many
>trees, based on the 70kg per tree model, could skilled labour pick in one
>hour? And try finding skilled and reliable pickers. Small growers, between
>2000-5000 trees, would have difficulty in finding suitable pickers when
>needed. The floating population of fruit pickers throughout Australia would
>tend to gravitate to the traditional areas (table fruit, nuts, grapes etc)
>for work. If you are out of that mainstream then I would suggest that the
>labour market would be different and hard to find.
>
>Regards
>
>Phil Bramley
>
>
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<pre>Edward,

I agree with your sentiments and as yet I am not in a position to know
answers to some of those questions. Our trees are still quite young and any
harvesting will be done by hand picking - until it becomes too labor
intensive to do so. Comparisons between the wine industry and the olive oil
industry are valid. Careful hand picking of grapes seems to produce a better
wine. I think this may also apply to olives.

I would be interested to know if anyone has been able to qualify the
difference in quality between hand picked olives and machine harvested
olives.

Phil
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