Australian grape growers set sight on olive production

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Grape growers in South Australia are bracing for another year of prices below the cost of production. But while the world is drinking less wine, a global shortage of olive oil is providing an opportunity.

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00:00These are some of the oldest vines in Australia's biggest wine region.

00:08In the depths of winter, the fruit is yet to bud, but when it does, the growers expect

00:14another year of low prices.

00:16But in between the rows, a new crop, olive trees, is bringing hope.

00:22The key thing about business is always evolving and we could see that olive oil was something

00:26that we could actually sell direct to our consumers, where we sell our wine.

00:33With a global oversupply of wine putting pressure on grape growers, Ashley Ratcliffe is looking

00:39for solutions.

00:40He's trialling super high density olive trees to diversify his business.

00:45It just made sense, a little bit crazy, my neighbours asked me what the hell you're doing,

00:49but we thought let's pull out the young vines, let's preserve the old vines and with the

00:52old vines we pulled out we put in Don Carlo olives.

00:58While the world is drinking less wine, demand for olive oil is growing.

01:04It's created a global shortage, something bulk wine and grape sales broker Blend Global

01:10sees as an opportunity, both in the domestic and international markets.

01:16Australia presently consumes more than double its own production of olive oil and we're

01:20relying on a lot of imports outside of the Mediterranean.

01:24While grape prices have been falling, the global olive oil prices have been increasing

01:29steadily and remaining consistent over the last 10 years.

01:33Demand is so high, Chantelle Kitson-Kass is working with a local council in the Riverland

01:38to find growers willing to swap grapes for olives to produce oil.

01:44Olives grow perfectly in the Mediterranean climate which is perfect for the Riverland,

01:47they've got the space, they've got the water and there's a lot of synergies between grapes

01:53and high density olives.

01:55It's something the council wants to encourage.

01:58With river communities dealing with financial losses from too much wine, local council mayor

02:04Ella Winnell says diversifying crops is important.

02:08There's probably not many people in the Baribamara community that aren't either employed by the

02:12wine industry or know someone closely who's employed by the wine industry.

02:16The council is so keen to take advantage of the olive oil boom, it's exploring supporting

02:21a processing facility which would also bring manufacturing jobs to the region.

02:26The olive opportunity has some really unique aspects of it that will have long term benefits

02:35for our community.

02:36Simon Robb manages one of a handful of Australian nurseries that grow super high density olive

02:42crops.

02:43He says this method of farming is more efficient and also allows grape growers to keep the

02:48same infrastructure.

02:51The crossover of equipment, vine equipment and olive equipment in those initial years

02:58is the same equipment which is very attractive to much of the industry at the moment with

03:04the reduced capital upfront cost of starting a new crop.

03:07These small olive trees are in big demand with growers waiting about 18 months to get

03:13their hands on them, but once the trees are in the ground they can bear fruit in as little

03:18as two years.

03:19So you've planted these, what, November and they're already this tall?

03:23Yeah, yeah, they really, they really grew really well.

03:25Ashley Ratcliffe is hoping other growers will get on board and embrace this quick change.

03:31Well it's quite interesting, some of their backgrounds, a lot of them are Greek and Italian,

03:34I mean they're very good at growing olives so they're quite excited to do something that

03:39maybe their grandparents did many years ago.

03:43For more information visit www.fhwa.dot.gov

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