Olive oil: Horror season for many New Zealand producers

Drought, bird strike and early frosts are causing damage to olive trees. Photo / RNZ / Leah Tebbutt

Many New Zealand olive oil producers are having a horror season, and hopes they could plug supply gaps because of a worldwide drought-affected olive oil shortage, have been dashed.

Growers in Northland, Waiheke, Auckland and Kāpiti have had good production and are still pressing olives now, but for many others, the season, which starts in March, has come to an abrupt halt.

Olives New Zealand executive officer Emma Glover said growers in Wairarapa, Nelson/Marlborough and Canterbury are pressing a third fewer olives than last season, and that season was a third down on the one before.

She said drought affected the fruit numbers and flesh on the fruit, and for those with trees in Central Otago, early frosts did a lot of damage.

Groves that normally produce 40,000 to 50,000 litres will be down to 30,000 litres.

Bird strike was also a major issue for growers.

“They finish in the grapevines, and then they turn to the olive trees, especially in Canterbury and Wairarapa,” Glover said.

“Starlings just flock and can destroy entire groves overnight, or actually during a day.

“And because of the drought, there’s not the other bugs and things to be eaten.

“They’ve picked on us.”

The disappointment is palpable when growers were really hoping to step in and provide oil in an under-supplied market because Spain, the world’s largest producer of olive oil, has had two bad harvests in a row due to very dry weather.

With the lower yields comes a huge drop in income for some growers and Glover believed some may leave the industry.

“Costs have gone up. Labour has gone up, importing everything else we use has gone up. So it is huge.

“There’ll be a lot of groves just not viable. That’s just the reality of it.

“They’re not going to keep growing, because to increase the volume, the growth (trees) needs to be maintained.

“If people are going and looking for employment elsewhere to supplement incomes, they don’t have the time and effort to put into growth.”

The one bright spot, Glover said, was the flavour was back again this year after several wet years when the fruit did not produce such an intense taste.

“Taste is definitely trending up towards to what we expect if you were buying New Zealand.”

- RNZ