Olives per tree

09/30/2009 - 13:50

How many litres of pressed oil does one get on average from a large olive treeMany thanks

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everyone asks them selves why local oil produced simply and not mixed or adulterated costs 6/7 euro whilst in supermarkets you can find it for as little as 3/4 euro.the facrt is whatever you saw o thought you saw on the label does not necessarily tell you about it's true origin etc a lot of "manufacturers are using even north african oils these apparently can have very high acidity levels so have to mixed with other oils or things to bring the levels down and acheive a taste acceptability.nevertheless you're right unless on a very large "industrialized" scale it is not profitable and indeed a lot of work but those who have them and do it are nevertheless satisfied with that.

For us there is no average, we have 80 trees, last year a bumper crop and this year hardly worth picking. Our trees vary so much in age, it would be impossible to judge, perhaps someone here who is more experienced or a commercial grower might have an answer, but it would depend on how well the trees had been looked after, and situation and weather conditions. Ours had been neglected for a few years and were pruned back hard this year in anticipation of next years crop.A

As a very rough guide, 4 to 5 litres based upon a 50kg yield of olives from a largish tree.

I had this same question myself and about four years ago made an attempt to get an answer from my Italian relatives, friends, etc. It was difficult because the converstation always went to quintales, weights, etc etc. With much persistence i also came up with a ballpark figure of 4-5 litres/tree/year (give or take a litre based on the particular characteristics of that season). No Bidet

This year the Olive crop is expected to be one of the all time lows with trees giving up to 60% lees fruit. Seasonal changes will affect most crops i.e. last year Figs were down but nearly 40% up this year.No easy answer, like anything Nature has it's way with.

My gardener in italy is looking after my olive trees and keeps half the crop for himself, does anyone know how he will get per litre of oil if he sells it. Also when are the trees pruned and when are the olives picked.

i very much doubt that he would sell it at all unless you have a huge number of trees/olives ,yes the price this year was around Euro 6. per litre of newly pressed oil (don't forget the cost of the press too,taking the olives to the press,bringing the oil back from the press,buying stainless steel bins in which to store it etc)although we sell some oil to guests and others with 104 trees it's hardly considered viable commercially speaking although we can usually produce enough for all our needs over the year including all cooking.

Sorry should have said how much he will get per litre of oil if he sells it.

In a glut year a fair price in Marche sold between neighbours was 6euros per litre. This year as it appears that there wont be much oil around prices will rise in proportion to the amount of oil available.Very hard to estimate ask again in November!A

Many thanks for your help

€6 per litre is very hard to justify the time and effort put into keeping and harvesting olive trees; when you can buy very good quality EV Olive oil from most Supermarkets for between € 4 &€5.

Ah yes, but not mine!A

And your IS the BEST A !!!

I am in the Val di Chiana and this year we have a bumper crop. The price for oil left at the frantoio is around 6/7 euro a litre.We have 400 trees and it is definately a labour of love! The pickers take half the oil produced in payment or are paidequivalent hourly rate. With pruning fertilizer etc is doesnt make money the reverse. I know Consorzio in Siena who buy from our area at around 6 euro a litre and sell for around 22 euro in the states.

I don't believe you find quality oil in the supermarket...not even if it's a DOP.....nothing like the local extra vergin oil just made.There is nothing better than bread with oil and that's our dinner when we bring home the first container from the oil mill.The traditional supermarket oils (Carapelli, Bertolli, Sasso, Carli etc.) are made from only max. 20 % italian olives, the rest comes from cheaper countries like Turkey, Tunisia, Greece and Marocco.What also happens is that every year, the large companies come down to Abruzzo and empty the cisterns of the frantoi buying the remains of last year's harvest at 4-6 euro/litre which they then "mix" with lower quality oil to make their "blends". My frantoiano once told that a famous local brand would buy his stock for 6 euro/litre because of it's low acidity, around 0,35 %. Taking into account that an extra vergin olive oil may have an acidity of 0,8 %, it gives plenty of room for "dilution".Fortunately the new legislation obliges the companies to write the origin of the olives on the labels:Roma, 1 lug. - "E' finalmente entrato in vigore l'obbligo di indicare in etichetta l'origine delle olive impiegate nell'extravergine in tutti i paesi europei, per combattere le truffe e di garantire la trasparenza alle scelte di acquisto dei consumatori che cercano il vero Made in Italy a tavola in tutta Europa". Lo segnala la Coldiretti, in riferimento al Regolamento comunitario N.182 del 6 marzo 2009, che da oggi obbliga ad indicare in etichetta la provenienza delle olive impiegate per produrre l'olio vergine ed extravergine di oliva in commercio. Il vero olio italiano sarà riconoscibile in etichetta da scritte come "ottenuto da olive italiane", "ottenuto da olive coltivate in Italia" o "100 % da olive italiane" mentre "per i miscugli di provenienza diversa sarà specificato - sottolinea la Coldiretti - se si tratta di 'miscele di oli di oliva comunitari', 'miscele di oli di oliva non comunitari' o di 'miscele di oli di oliva comunitari e non comunitari'". Let's hope this brings a bit of clarity.You should also remember, that NONE of the commercial oils writes the harvest year on their bottles.

Yes 6 euros a litre in Lazio is normal but you do know it is yours and not blended with other oils. This year - not so many olives and a little fly damage but overall not bad quality - the proof will be in the pressing!Looking after olives is not as difficult as the Italians would have us believe and if you're fit can be the only way you can make a little money out of them.

Agree with around €6 per litre for "categoria superiore" extra virgin oil. (meets additional conditions to the 0.8% acidity test; normally single estate, superior taste etc). Usually this will be bottled into 750ml bottles so price is €4.50 for 750ml. Shops, supermarkets etc. in Italy will sell then sell at around €10-€15 a bottle. (A fairly standard mark up in retail). The everyday extra virgin seen for around €4-€6 will almost certainly not be "categoria superiore" but will probably be the same oil that you see in UK supermarkets for £10 plus a bottle.

We just harvested ours last week and picked about 500kg of olives from approx. 45 trees, resulting in 66 litres of oil.

Here in Sicily DOP quality oil sells direct for 4 euros a litre from the frantoio - the 50/50 you pay the picker also includes pruning and harrowing the land twice a year - in short you don't have to do anything except enjoy your oil. We have a high resa on olives down here and its 1 litre of oil per 10 kg usually. The extra virgin oil in supermarkets only needs (if I remember rightly) less than 10% extra virgin oil to make it 'extra virgin'. The other 90% can be any old rubbish. There is no comparison between the delicious peppery bright green oil from home produced oil and the insipid yellow of bought oils - I rekcon if most of the Tescos customers knew what a good oil was like they would refuse outright to buy what is offered in UK supermarkets.

Previous comment edited as I was having a dumb moment..We were fortunate enough to get 1.5 litres per 10kg this year. Previous years has been as low as 0.9 litres and the highest 1.65, so not bad all in all. Totally agree with all the comments about having your own oil.There is no comparison with the cheap end oil that one can buy in the supermarket for €4 or €5. It's just a shame that we have so little this year. One of our frantoio's big customer's is said to be 60% down on last year.Most people around here have picked early as olive fly has been a big problem this year.

Just returned from the press to ask if they will consider the paltry amount we have yet to pick this year. They said yes so amounts must be very down on last years as we expected. They sell their own oil (its on the road out of Servigliano towards, Amandola on the left) which seems to work out at 9euros a litre. Last year it was priced at 6euros.A

Ok... so we have 220 trees in Tuscany - most really quite old and some have formed new trees around an old stump. They are pruned each year by Italian Farmers so we get a really good yeild. We have just come back from Tuscany where we carried out the first press of the season. We took 570 kilos of olives that we took from 18 trees. When we came to collect the oil produced we had 103 litres.I hope that gives you some idea of the quantities involved from old trees that are looked after by Italians who know what they are doing!!

Thank you very interesting, apart from us( and a few others) all the trees are looked after by Italians in Marche, and the yield is bad this year, after the glut of last year, but I am pleased to hear you in Tuscana are doing better than us.And admit that we try but dont always get it right, but rely on our neighbors for advice, their trees are having very bad yields as well, so doubt here it is our inability to be Italian.A

must be catching this non italian/italian thing... many olive producers here have seen very low yields mainly due to freak weather storms when the flowers were setting... we seem to have been lucky...juts started our first day have about 250 kgs of olives.. off twenty or so trees.. its something i try to avoid doing...counting what we have picked and how many to go.... thankfully for me anyway and my back nowhere near the 200 plus mark... just enough for us and family... i doubt nationality comes into any farm production at all...its skill and luck...because all outside crops are at the whim of the weather... also olives being cyclic in basically a two year pattern give one good year and one not so good in general... although this has been a pretty disastrous second year after last years exceptional crop... however am happy for you in Tuscany.. and long may it continue... i also agree that knowledge and some practices of old help...but really see no correlation between being Italian or any other nationality to what you have achieved...