Avocado oil scoops food awards

By ELLEN READ

A small Kerikeri company is picking itself up off the floor after scooping the big award at the Massey University food technology awards.

Less than a year after hitting the market with its avocado oil, Olivado New Zealand took home Massey's premier award - beating competition from heavyweights including Fonterra, Frucor Beverages and Kapiti Cheeses.

Olivado director John Ellegard said the win came as a surprise to many, because Olivado launched on to the market with its Extra Virgin Avocado Oil only in November 2000 and was still very much in start-up mode.

But the professional way Olivado went about marketing its products and gaining sales in the tough food sector won the admiration of the judges.

They said Olivado was a great example of how a small business could create a very professional, high impact.

Olivado was formed in 1998 with the aim of establishing a commercial olive grove and olive oil processing plant at Kerikeri.

A grove of 12 hectares was planted - using Kalamata trees and a miniature variety exclusive to Olivado known as Clone 2264RW.

Research suggested using avocados to produce an oil similar to olive oil during the olive off season, so the company worked for more than a year with world-leading oil processing manufacturer Alfa Laval of Italy to develop a process suited to producing the high quality, cold-pressed, extra-virgin avocado oil.

In the process Olivado has invested millions of dollars in a high-tech production system that produces high-quality food oils, with a guaranteed shelf life of two years.

At the modern, purpose-built oil-making facility, its avocado oils are made by the traditional cold-pressed method, which extracts the natural oil from the fruit, retaining its goodness.

Olivado does not grow its own avocados, preferring to leave that to skilled horticulturists throughout Northland and the Bay of Plenty.

Overseas, avocado oil is processed from poor-quality fruit and made into a base product for the cosmetics industry by refining, which involves heating and chemical extraction. This process delivers an oil stripped of many excellent qualities and is not suitable for culinary use.

Olivado New Zealand is producing avocado oil in much the same way that olive oil has been made over many centuries in the Mediterranean - by pressing the mesocarp, or flesh of the fruit, at temperatures around 35C, to drain the oil.

The average avocado contains between 13 and 22 per cent oil. When olive oil is made, the pit and skin are pressed at the same time, but the stone and skin of the avocado must be discarded before processing as they contain toxins.

Olive oil and avocado oil are best the day they are made and will not improve with age. They are harmed by light and heat. That is why Olivado uses only dark bottles for avocado oil and olive oil.

The company recommends storing oils in a cool cupboard, where the temperature will not rise above 30C, but says the oil should not be refrigerated or it will solidify.

The Massey judges recognised Olivado's innovative marketing campaign, which used a mix of integrated activities from traditional advertising and PR through to a website, point of sale and direct consumer actions and which propelled Olivado from a niche player into the mainstream and the kitchens of thousands of New Zealand homes and restaurants.

Its New Zealand success has now provided a platform for an export drive that is set to emulate its domestic sales, with markets already established in Australia and Asia, soon to be followed by Europe and the United States.

"We've hardly had time to breathe since we hit the market, and to suddenly find ourselves among the best marketers in New Zealand is the icing on the cake and a tribute to all the hard work that has gone into creating this company and the product," said Olivado managing director Chris Nathan.

A key to the success has been the ability of Olivado to bring together a highly qualified and motivated team of experts from the worlds of finance, food technology, industrial and chemical technology, horticultural technology and marketing to provide essential resources and a sound base for the company.

Olivado has a dozen shareholders, including chefs, investment bankers, caterers, food technologists and chemical engineers.

Despite the success so far, the company says it still has a long way to go.

Marketing director John Ellegard said: "Our goal is to be selling four times the current volumes locally within the next few years and we have to continue to be innovative and aggressive to make that come about."