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Auckland grower Alex Twentyman has become the second olive oil taster to achieve Associate status in the International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Savantes program. Alex, 23, participated in the 2010 Savantes program and returned for the Melbourne program in July, where he achieved the 60% mark required for Associate Savante status. The Twentyman family own the Ocean View Estate olive grove at Mangonui in the far north of New Zealand; Alex is also a professional bass guitarist and software marketer. Associate status is the first step to achieving full Savante status and membership of the International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Savantes Register. Tests include rancidity and intensity ranking, defect identification, regional identification, triangle tests and own oil identification. For further Information about the Savantes program, contact Simon Field at [email protected] or +61 418 329 890.
Olives NZ members are getting great promotion of their brands on the TV program Café Secrets. Screening on TV3, Sundays at 5pm, the program is featuring EVOO and also the OliveMark, providing positive support for the local industry and its quality products. You can watch the episode featuring Kapiti Olives https://www.tv3.co.nz/Shows/CafeSecrets/TVOnDemand.aspx Coming up are: 19 August – Napier, featuring Matapiro Olives; 2 September – Auckland, featuring Wells Grove Estate and 9 September – Nelson, featuring Matapiro Olives.
New Zealand producers planning to infuse their Certified EVOO might like to consider an alternative this year. Olives NZ executive officer Gayle Sheridan said there is a shortage of Certified EVOO from the 2012 harvest, and a demand from people wishing to buy all types. Difficult weather conditions mean there has also been oil certified as Virgin rather than EVOO. This oil is still generally fine for infusing and remember, if you infuse EVOO it can no longer be labelled as EVOO. So if you are infusing oil, why not look to buy in Virgin oil and sell your EVOO to someone looking for this? Check out the Olives NZ website for EVOO wanted to buy https://www.olivesnz.org.nz/for-sale/
Olives New Zealand members achieved great results in the 2012 Los Angeles EVOO Competition, bringing home a total of nine medals. Awards went to: Bronze – Divinity, MAD, Motutira and Rangihoua Estate (x2); Silver – Man O’War, Ocean View Olive Estate (x2) and Rangihoua Estate. Congratulations to all.
The farmgate price for olive oil is finally on the up in world production leader Spain, which some are attributing to expectations that after three years of bumper harvests the next will be a lean one. “The market knows there will be few olives to pick next season,” Diario Jaen said. According to the POOLred price information system, the index price for olive oil had climbed from €1.87per kg on July 26 to €1.94 today on August 1.
The use of nano-filtering technology could help in the recovery and purification of bioactive ingredients such as phenolic compounds from fruit wastes, say researchers.
Olive oil supplier Filippo Berio has reported its highest ever monthly sales in the UK, thanks to a heavy marketing push. During July, the company sold over 1.3 million litres of olive oil in the UK – a 12% uplift on April’s figures. The strong sales followed an extensive TV and print advertising campaign for the brand, focusing on the versatility of oil and debunking myths such as the idea that olive oil is unsuitable for frying. Over the Jubilee festivities it gave away one million recipe booklets in the Sunday Times and the Mail on Sunday.
The Association of Olive Oil Producing Municipalities of Crete (SEDIK) has compiled a memo with suggestions to improve Europe’s olive oil action plan for boosting the ailing industry. The memo has been sent to the Greek Ministry of Agriculture, members of the Parliament and the members of the European Parliament. The suggestions include that the “extra virgin” grade should have an acidity level up to 0.5 grams per 100 grams.
More than 20 plants involved in the production or packaging of olive oil or table olives in Spain were found to have no system of product traceability, according to the 2010-2011 annual report from the country’s olive oil watchdog. The Olive Oil Agency (AAO) made the discovery as part of its inspections – including 907 spot checks, hundreds of cross-checks of accounts and 441 samples of olive oil – among the country’s 1,742 active olive oil mills and related plants that olive season.
An exceptional 1,300-year-old olive oil factory was unearthed recently during excavations in the Tel Aviv suburb of Hod Hasharon. The Israel Antiquities Authority’s find, dated to the late Byzantine or early Muslim period, narrowly escaped being paved over by a planned roadway. Excavators found a pressing floor for olives, a piping system, trenches, and cisterns that drained and stored the fresh olive oil. Stone weights used for pressing sacks of olives were found beside the ruins. By the archaeologists’ estimations, the site was an industrial concern and not private.