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<pre>Dear Andrew,

I'n not sure that its worth pursuing this in public but for what its
worth I completely agree with your comments about quality not being
the sole domain of boutique producers. The amount of money the big
players can plough into ensuring quality is enormous. The big players
can afford to invest in specialist knowledge/skills, have on-line
quality testing, perform trials of extraction techniques, grove
management, harvest timing, mechanical harvesting, commission
research etc etc. Just the soil testing that timbercorp has done for
instance is beyond the resources of the smaller players. The
consultation they have invested in to ensure they achieve quality
(and undeniably quantity) is also impressive.

The wine example of care and nurture is a good one however if taken
further illustrates your point nicely. I have had a little insight
into one of the larger wineries in NZ and the efforts they go to to
ensure quality cannot be replicated without expensive equipment and
specialist expertise. At a comparable price bracket it can be hard to
justify buying a boutique wine or olive oil over its mass produced
counterpart without tasting or having some idea of its pedigree.

The big olive oil producers may or may not have got it all right just
yet but I believe they have the best chance to sustainably make (and
sell) high quality EVO.

For what its worth,

Paul Croucher
School of Pharmacy
University of Auckland
New Zealand

p.croucher@...
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