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<pre>Hi Again,
Last year I found some useful information on this site on costs of
setting up olive groves. This year I'm after some idea of the costs
of picking olives using various equipment.
Last year 1 member wrote that they thought that a kilo of fruit was
costing around 0.50c/kilo to pick, I think they were using hand rakes
and drop sheets.
If you feel like sharing this information with me please send an
email to mstarcza@... .
Regards
Matt Starczak

(Co-moderator comment:
The responses could also be sent through the list, that's what it is for, the
exchange of ideas etc. -- BTW be sure to specify the currency in which your
costs are stated, there's a huge difference between $0.50 US and $0.50 AU
Cheers
John Attwood
Co-moderator
)
</pre>
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<pre>We are able to supply both harvesting nets and an assortment of hand racks.

Please contact us if you require any further information.


Stella Kontopoulos
Omega Foods Pty Ltd
33 Adam Street
Hindmarsh S.A 5007
Ph; 08 83466499
Fax: 08 803463144
email: omega@...

----- Original Message -----
From: "starczaks" <mstarcza@...>
To: <OliveOil@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, February 27, 2004 2:34 PM
Subject: [OliveOil] Cost of picking olives


> Hi Again,
> Last year I found some useful information on this site on costs of
> setting up olive groves. This year I'm after some idea of the costs
> of picking olives using various equipment.
> Last year 1 member wrote that they thought that a kilo of fruit was
> costing around 0.50c/kilo to pick, I think they were using hand rakes
> and drop sheets.
> If you feel like sharing this information with me please send an
> email to mstarcza@... .
> Regards
> Matt Starczak
>
> (Co-moderator comment:
> The responses could also be sent through the list, that's what it is for,
the exchange of ideas etc. -- BTW be sure to specify the currency in which
your costs are stated, there's a huge difference between $0.50 US and $0.50
AU
> Cheers
> John Attwood
> Co-moderator
> )
>
>
>
> **************************************************
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>
>
>
>
>
</pre>
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<pre>Dear Matt,

In all the discussion about the levy we have mostly neglected to
answer your question. I'm presuming that this is being used by
Urrbrae High School for teaching our next generation of agriculture
entrepreneurs :-)

I've looked at some of the costs of picking. Last year, at one olive
grove that specialises in Kalamata olives for table use and where
fruit quality must be of the highest standard I'm led to believe they
were paying up to $Aust 5.00 per kilo for fruit. Yes, that involved
standing on ladders and hand raking the fruit into carry bags. No
drop sheets here; too much bruising. That's the highest costs I've
heard yet in a commercial olive grove in Australia.

I've also known of some teachers (oops) who use their students for
hand harvesting during the season in small olive groves. They have a
lot of fun, are paid minimal wages and have a darn good time! Maximum
ten dollars per hour but you need to keep them motivated and working.
They typically don't last more than a few hours at a time, so give
them half days of working and a good bbq afterwards.

At the other end of the scale, I saw a modified prune harvester in
southern NSW last year harvesting in a large olive grove. This was a
shaker style harvester with two people, one doing the shaking and the
other the clamping. The machine cost in excess of $A 350,000 to
manufacture and was reputed to easily harvest one tree per minute
when working properly. There was minimal root or bark damage as far
as I could see (not like some others that have been demonstrated).
The cost per tree was $A 2.00 and there appeared to be between 60%
and 90% harvesting of the fruit depending upon a large number of
factors. Depending on the yield, say between 25kg and 40kg per tree,
the costs would vary accordingly i.e. between eight and five cents
per kilo. (It's likely uneconomic to harvest the remaining fruit in a
large plantation but I'd be willing to be convinced otherwise).

Everything else I've heard falls somewhere in between. Remember that
the cost of harvesting depends quite strongly on the pruning and
plantation methods used. When doing a total cost of product
calculation, there are trade-offs to be made between harvesting and
pruning once you have chosen a particular olive plantation style
(i.e. density of trees and type of trees used).

Paul Vossen in California has done some work on harvesting costs
which are very interesting. Somewhere in my files I also have
costings on modified grape harvesting equipment being trialled in the
US.

Hope this helps. Does anybody have trial based costings of the
equipment they are selling (shakers with skirts, mechanical fingers,
etc.)?

Regards,
Lambros Karavis.


>
>
>Message: 5
> Date: Fri, 27 Feb 2004 04:04:23 -0000
> From: "starczaks" <mstarcza@...>
>Subject: Cost of picking olives
>
>Hi Again,
>Last year I found some useful information on this site on costs of
>setting up olive groves. This year I'm after some idea of the costs
>of picking olives using various equipment.
>Last year 1 member wrote that they thought that a kilo of fruit was
>costing around 0.50c/kilo to pick, I think they were using hand rakes
>and drop sheets.
>If you feel like sharing this information with me please send an
>email to mstarcza@... .
>Regards
>Matt Starczak
>
>(Co-moderator comment:
>The responses could also be sent through the list, that's what it is
>for, the exchange of ideas etc. -- BTW be sure to specify the
>currency in which your costs are stated, there's a huge difference
>between $0.50 US and $0.50 AU
>Cheers
>John Attwood
>Co-moderator
>)
</pre>
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