Producing Table Olives

Stan Kailis,David Harris

• Editore: Landlinks Press
• Anno: 2007
• ISBN:
  9780643099500
• Argomento: Ciencias biológicas
• Categoria: Horticultura

Australia has the ideal conditions for growing and processing table olives. In a climate where the majority of table olives eaten by Australians are imported, real opportunities exist for a domestic table olive industry. Attention to quality and safety will ensure that Australian table olive producers are in a position to tackle and make inroads into the international export market.

The aim of this manual is to provide olive growers and processors with internationally based guidelines for ensuring the quality and safety of processed table olives. This manual covers all aspects essential for the production of safe, nutritious and marketable table olives including site selection, recommended varieties, pest and disease control, primary and secondary processing, and quality and safety testing.

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Table olive perspectives

This chapter reviews some of the history of olive growing, with particular reference to table olives and the current features of the international olive trade. Information is provided for olive growers and processors on how the Australian table olive industry is placed within the international table olive market, particularly with respect to export and the local table olive markets. Australia is a significant importer of table olives and there are great opportunities for expanding the Australian table olive industry. This section also examines the regions of Australia in which olives can be successfully grown. Olives are grown commercially in all Australian states and possibly in the Northern Territory. A conceptual model of the Australian table olive industry is given in a schematic form.

Introduction

Table olives are either produced at home or on commercial premises. Home processing of table olives is very popular among Australians, particularly those with Mediterranean or Middle Eastern origins.

Table olives are prepared from the raw fruit of the European or domesticated olive Olea europaea L. Hoff. Raw olives are picked when green-ripe, turning colour or black-ripe, depending on the processing style to be used. Raw olives are inedible due to the presence of the extremely bitter glucoside, oleuropein. Processing raw olives to reduce bitterness and make them edible can be undertaken by soaking them in water, brine or dilute alkali, or by drying, salting or heating.

Today the Australian olive industry, which involves both growing olives and processing them into foodstuffs, is vibrant and dynamic. The quantities of olive oil and table olives produced are expected to increase significantly over the next few years. Substantial investment has been made into establishing olive orchards and processing facilities in the major mainland states of Australia using the latest international technology. Many parts of Australia have suitable growing conditions for olives and the olive products produced have gained interest and recognition by international competitors. Two sectors are evolving – table olive production and olive oil production. Drawing upon the rich history of the olive, spanning thousands of years, and current international research, those in the industry have the common objective of producing high quality olive products using the latest technologies. The development of the Australian table olive industry must be considered in a national and international context if it is to reach its economic potential. The success of the Australian table olive industry will depend on capturing a significant proportion of the domestic market, mostly now served by imported products, and the development of international markets.

Currently most Australian table olive enterprises are at the boutique to small-scale levels. A small number of these are processing or planning to process 100 t/year or more with one major processor having a processing capacity of 500 t/year. Capturing a significant segment of national supermarket table olive sales has so far proved difficult. So, many Australian table olive products are sold as specialty lines through food shops, wineries, gourmet centres and delicatessens. Often Australian grown and processed table olives are purchased within wine producing regions, for example McClaren Vale (South Australia), Hunter Valley (New South Wales), Margaret River (Western Australia), Rutherglen (Victoria), Kingaroy (Queensland) and Launceston (Tasmania). Table olives from a small number of processors have penetrated state and national markets. At the international level most olive growing countries have established table olive processing facilities either for domestic production, international consumption or both. Spain and Greece, which have substantial table olive industries, are major exporters of table olives.

Table olives are popular with Australians; however, most table olives that Australians eat are imported from Spain and Greece. These include: Spanish-style green, black Californian/ Spanish-style, Greek/Sicilian-style green and black olives, and Kalamata-style black olives. Table olive consumption by Australians is approaching 0.9 kg/person/year and increasing. Those Australians with Mediterranean or Middle Eastern links eat substantially more. Table olives whole, cracked, stuffed, marinated or incorporated into pastes are eaten with bread and cheese, with salads and cold collations and cooked foods. Olives are commonly presented with pickled vegetables, starters, antipasti, hors d’oeuvres or mezedes.

Historical aspects of table olives

The wild olive is native to the Mediterranean area, sub-tropical and central Asia, and parts of Africa. The domesticated olive tree, one of civilised man’s first achievements, is of very ancient origin, probably arising at the dawn of agriculture. A strongly held view is that the domesticated olive evolved from the wild olive, O. oleaster, which can still be found growing in the Mediterranean basin, especially in Greece and Italy. Wild olives have short branches, small, thick, fleshy, round to oval leaves and small round fruit with a large stone and little flesh. Heavily grazed domesticated olive trees revert to the juvenile vegetative state, having an appearance similar to O. oleaster except they do not fruit. These are often referred to as O. olevaster. The term ‘wild olive’ is often loosely used to denote O. oleaster and cultural escapes (feral olives).

The domesticated olive is thought to have originated in the Middle East, possibly near Iran, Mesopotamia and Syria, spreading south and west through Palestine and Anatolia (Fig. 1.1) to the rest of the Mediterranean basin initially through the movement and trading activities of the Phoenicians and ancient Greeks. An alternative view is that the olive was also domesticated independently of Syria in Crete at around 2500 BC. Historically, and to the present time, olives have been culturally and economically significant in the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions (Fig. 1.2). Although the olive is not indigenous outside these regions, it has been introduced in countries with suitable growing environments: Mediterranean-like climates. The olive was taken to countries such as South America (Chile and Argentina) and North America (Mexico and California) by Spanish missionaries and later by immigrants from the Mediterranean region. Olive trees are now also growing in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, China, India and Japan. In parts of Asia and north-eastern Australia, with monsoonal-type climates, the boundaries for commercial olive growing are being tested.

Figure 1.1 Ancient olive tree (9–10 metres tall) in the ruins of ancient Acropolis, on the island of Megisti, Greece, opposite Anatolia, Turkey.

Figure 1.2 Table olives at a local market in Turkey.

For thousands of years olives have been an important foodstuff, possibly essential, for the people living around the Mediterranean basin and in the Middle East. Processing methods used by these groups, for example debittering, probably evolved by trial and error. It is unclear when the first olive was eaten or processed. Very ripe fruit of some olive varieties, although still bitter, were probably eaten directly off the tree or off the ground. The process of debittering olives could have developed by drying the fruit in the sun or by soaking in water. Soaking in water as an operation to make food more palatable was well understood by hunter and gatherer communities. As most olives in the Old World grew close to the sea, especially the Mediterranean, the possible use of seawater to debitter olives is understandable. Prolonged storage of raw olives in salt water would have triggered natural fermentation that would have facilitated their debittering and improved palatability. The olives were most likely flavoured with herbs gathered from nearby heaths and hillsides. The early uses of alkaline wood ash to debitter olives and later sodium hydroxide (in the mid 19th century) were the precursors of lye treatments used today.

Through trial and error, and with the development of agrarian communities, table olive processing became well established at the domestic level using traditional recipes that were handed from one family to another and down the generations with or without modifications. Quality was unpredictable due to poor understanding of processing methods, lack of hygienic practice and the absence of control measures, resulting in poor quality products of low economic value. In the last 100 years table olive processing has moved from the village to well-managed, large-scale production centres particularly in southern Europe, northern Africa, Middle Eastern countries and the Americas, especially the USA and Argentina. Countries that are scaling up their table olive activities with substantial international markets in view are: Morocco, Turkey, Argentina and Australia.

Historical aspects of Australian table olives

Australia is at the cusp of being a significant table olive producing country. Olives are not indigenous to Australia but they have been growing in this country since the settlement of Europeans. Here we can only provide a few historic highlights. The Australian olive industry has its roots in the early days of European colonisation when settlers planted the first olive trees some 200 years ago. Australian olive growing had its beginnings in New South Wales where George Suttor, a market gardener, planted the first olive tree that was brought in as part of a shipment of plants consigned by Sir Joseph Banks in 1800. Several years later, in 1805, the well-recognised settler farmer John Macarthur planted an olive tree on his property ‘Elizabeth Farm’ at Parramatta, New South Wales. The first commercial olive growing endeavour in Australia is credited to this pioneer. Over time, further plantings were made in other parts of Australia. The olive rootstock for these early Australian plantings was brought predominantly from Spain, France, Portugal and Italy.

In the 1800s in South Australia, Sir Samuel Davenport, a protagonist of commercial olive growing, was making olive oil and providing olive rootstock for others. Olive rootstock was also being distributed freely to farmers by government agencies in a number of diverse regions in Australia. The Botanic Gardens in Sydney became one of the major distribution centres for free olive cuttings. Olives were promoted for olive oil rather than as table olives and excess olives were often relegated to animal feed. The establishment of experimental olive orchards in most Australian states, for example Dookie College in Victoria and the Wagga Wagga Experimental Orchard in New South Wales, is evidence that olives were considered a potential crop species for Australia.

Figure 1.3 Olive trees planted in 1856 at the Benedictine Community at New Norcia, Western Australia.

In Western Australia the first olive trees, brought from Cadiz (Spain), were planted by James Drummon...