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<pre>Ian

Apologies for tardy reply.

VERONA
Back in Australia after attending Veronafiere in company with Nicolas Estate
(Dimboola) with assistance by our local Italian Chamber of Commerce. This
is an annual event and I would urge other Australian companies to join the
fray and see what our competition is. The event was staged in a very large
auditorium about the size of two football fields stacked with some 300+
representatives from (mostly) Italy. Nominal presence of Tunisia, Spain,
Turkey, Greece and us. France not present nor a lot of others. There may
have been other countries exhibiting but I
didn't come across them.

Vast range of oils on show with some exceptional ones. Prize-winners in all
categories were Italian save for 2 Spanish oils. We didn't get a Guernsey
as
our exhibited oil (The Gold and Best Oil of the Show in Oz) was already 12
months old on the day of tasting. Past it's use-by date. The fresh oil
taken across with us (pressed 3 days before embarking) was very well
received with "complimentari" being the word most often used. In general
there was surprise that Australia was producing oil at all let alone to the
standards of Italy.

2001 PROCESSING
We have been pressing now for about 6 weeks with the earliest Corregiola
coming down from Deniliquin. Harvested at about 95% coloured it yielded a
bare 16% of excellent oil. Other C's from other areas yielded 20% wxw.
"Paragon" of similar colour yielded similar results with a distinctly
different flavour. 80% coloured Nevadillo's yielded 20%+ and quite a gutsy,
yet surprisingly mild, flavour. "Sth Aust Verdale" to date has been poor
yielding, large fruit full of water. Uninteresting flavour for my palate.
The dreaded M's remain so (best yield 10% un-talced from Sunraysia, worst
yield <2% un-talced). So-called "Mission" poor yield (14%) and lacking in
any character. First significant batch of Barnea coming up next week which
I look forward to.

Am harvesting about 4 tonne of M's for the table at present (they do make
good picklers but we will have an awful lot of them) as well as a crop of
about 4 tonne of Paragon. Another 8 tonne is due in the following week of
various, mainly proven Mission and Verdale. Thereafter it would seem that
there will be around another 20-30 tonnes to process giving us a nice little
store of oil.

Growers pls do not pick your fruit too early and pls arrange with your
processor whether they are ready to receive. It's a hint of things to come
I guess but it is just a tad more chaotic this year with new growers popping
up from everywhere wanting their fruit processed asap. I would advise all
growers to get contracts that are meaningful as soon as possible wherever
you are. It is becoming more and more apparent that those without said
contracts are going to be left out on the proverbial limb unless some
arrangements are made for the purchase of their product.

Prices being paid this season are still high (around $A1500/tonne) but I
expect this to decrease significantly over the next 3 years.

Our Pieralisi Fattoria due to be commissioned this coming Friday.

Regards
Peter Caird
www.victorianolivegroves.com
0418 392 157

----- Original Message -----
From: "Ian Fraser" <fraspub@mail.albury.net.au>
To: <OliveOil@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Tuesday, April 03, 2001 9:17 PM
Subject: [OliveOil] Re: Oil yields this Antipodean season


> Congrats, Peter, on kicking your season off promisingly.
>
> I'll be most interested in the reaction to the oil in Italy. Lovely city,
> Verona.
>
> Our Paragons - and the few Corregiolas our Qld friends got right - are
> ripening nicely at the moment.
>
> All the best.
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