Hi all,
He finally got round to picking some olives this year. He took them to our local mill in Els Reguers and was told by the man at the mill he could not buy them. Are there any mills locally and do you need a certain amount before they buy them?
Yours Bulldog. 

As far as I know there is a minumum (though I don't know what it is) and you may have to be a member if you go to a cooperative.  If you only have a small amount you can take them to a mill and pay them to process them into oil for you.  The alternative is to pickle them if they're in good condition.

You can take them to Amposta. They will take whatever and no need to be in Co-op. It is behind Suimplast (big plumbers merchants). Paying about 30 cents off the tree, not sure if that is any good.

30 cents sounds OK.  My neighbor only got 22 cents.

Many thanks all. Arrived on finca after Place in the Sun ( hit man hired to track down the producer as he said olives worth thousands of euros ) First year here started to gather the olives, hand picking. Visions of new Merc. car/yacht ( don't know why can't sail or swim ) Then met my first snake fell out the tree end of olive picking for first year. This year after much persuasion/harassment then downright violence from her indoors started olive picking again to keep other half happy. Much pain and suffering and many sacks later, the hunter gatherer left the shack on the hill with head held high, talking to myself on colour of new Merc. car with a chest full of British pride now having put Italy out of olive oil production and willing to bargain on the fast sum of money I was willing to except for my top quality olives. Imagine my utter shock when mill owner said NO to olives and go. Had a hissy fit all the way back to the shack on the hill. So over a cup of tea and 3 digestives with a demented look on my face armed with axe and saw I thought to hell with olive farming and up with the lumber jacking.
Yours a some what poorer but wiser Bulldog.   

Aahh, you poor old thing.
Violence from Mrs Bulldog. Never.
So no new Merc, or yacht for you. The yacht would have been handy, a couple of weeks ago!
Olive logs make good burning, I believe. So should keep you warm for a while. You could always sell logs, and maybe get a second hand Merc, with the proceeds.

Bulldog wrote on Dec 8^th, 2012 at 3:06pm:

Many thanks all. Arrived on finca after Place in the Sun ( hit man hired to track down the producer as he said olives worth thousands of euros ) First year here started to gather the olives, hand picking. Visions of new Merc. car/yacht ( don't know why can't sail or swim ) Then met my first snake fell out the tree end of olive picking for first year. This year after much persuasion/harassment then downright violence from her indoors started olive picking again to keep other half happy. Much pain and suffering and many sacks later, the hunter gatherer left the shack on the hill with head held high, talking to myself on colour of new Merc. car with a chest full of British pride now having put Italy out of olive oil production and willing to bargain on the fast sum of money I was willing to except for my top quality olives. Imagine my utter shock when mill owner said NO to olives and go. Had a hissy fit all the way back to the shack on the hill. So over a cup of tea and 3 digestives with a demented look on my face armed with axe and saw I thought to hell with olive farming and up with the lumber jacking. Yours a some what poorer but wiser Bulldog.

Why would the mill owner say no? and what does it cost to join a co-op these days?

It seems to me like having a farm in Spain is a waste of time if you can't sell your crops. What's the point? How do the locals make it work?

Yours,
Confused.

A properly managed grove should consistently produce an average of about 4 tonnes/acre so at current prices for clean olives that's about 1,200 €.  If you factor in the cost of spraying, harvesting and pruning etc. it's not going to give anyone a living.

Well, that means an average 2 hectare finca with 6 acres of olives makes €7200. Knock off as couple of hundred for spraying and do the rest yourself. It's not bad beer money, about what our basic costs are for living here. On the other hand, if you invested the capital at 2% pa you would only need to put €350,000.00 in the bank for the same return. Mind you, UK inflation is at 2.7% so that won't work.
I think I will keep bringing them in.

So are you saying Pete that you have 6 acres of olives and you're collecting 24 tonnes of quality fruit and doing the maintenance yourself ?  I'd be interested to hear what kit you have (or do you hire it in), ?

1 Hectare is 2.5 acres so a 2 Hectare site is only 5 acres not 6.
1 Hectare is exactly 10,000 m2 - the same as a full size football pitch.

On the matter of Olive groves:
In some parts of the Meditereanean area (parts of Greece and Italy for example), olive trees are spaced so closely that the trees almost touch and are hardly pruned. Whilst I understand the need for pruning, I don't understand why do the Spanish grow them so far apart with similar climates and rainfall to those other areas? Surely this reduces the amount of crops one can expect?  Is it just a cultural thing or is there a valid reason? I was thinking of planting more olives in between existing trees to close the paces up and increase yields.

hope someone can give a valid reason,
John.

http://www.actahort.org/members/showpdf?booknrarnr=474_34

http://www.oliveoilsource.com/page/olive-tree-spacing#traditional

Food for thought ?

Most of the orchards here are planted on a 7/8m spacing but most of the orchards are very old so there's no way of knowing if the original density was higher and they've been thinned over time as the trees got broader.  There are couple of newly planted orchards near me.  I'll see if I can do a quick measure.

Thanks Bigyin,
The two links are very helpful. I have a lot of very young olives which need to be transplanted into final places so this information is especially welcome.  :)

John.

PlanesPete wrote on Dec 10^th, 2012 at 12:35pm:

Well, that means an average 2 hectare finca with 6 acres of olives makes €7200. Knock off as couple of hundred for spraying and do the rest yourself. It's not bad beer money, about what our basic costs are for living here. On the other hand, if you invested the capital at 2% pa you would only need to put €350,000.00 in the bank for the same return. Mind you, UK inflation is at 2.7% so that won't work. I think I will keep bringing them in.

I think the maths can be made to look good on paper if you can include the grant,as with most business plans,the practicality of it is so much different.Factor in bad years,cost of water plus well maintainance etc etc,fertiliser,wastage,fluctuating prices at the mill,transport. It all adds up ,otherwise everyone would be doing it. Hazelnut had it right....cut em up and use em on the fire ;)

John,
If you're getting into planting or transplanting there's some good info here.
http://www.oliveaustralia.com.au/About_Olive_Trees/about_olive_trees.html

How about telling us more about what you've got ?

Hi Bigyin,
sorry for the delay in replying, I'm having severe problems with my internet connection at the moment.

I have 1.75 hectares of land near Asco with mainly almonds but also some mature Arbequina olives and some grape vines. I'm also going to be planting some figs for our own use and have recently planted carobs - our dog loves them so why buy doggie treats when we can grow them for free?

We're also looking at buying a 8 hectare place not too far away with mainly Arbequina olives. We are hoping to move over permanently in the spring now that I have managed to get early retirement. We just have a few more loose ends to sort out here then we are free to move over. 

It'll be nice if we can get to meet some more of the people on the forum. We have already met some really nice people, all of whom we wish to keep in touch with.

John.   :)