World class Tasmanian olive oil

A bumper crop of Tasmanian Olive Oil may well mean that its extra virgin olive oil may finally make it to mainland supermarket shelves.

Low crops of the past has meant that the oil was sold fairly exclusively within the Apple Isle.

On a recent promotional tour to Europe and the United States tasters have Tasmanian olive oil , says Paul Miller, president Australian Olive Oil Association is recognized by international experts as an outstanding quality oil.

“They are more spicy, more vibrant in flavour and people are amazed how peppery they can be and how interesting to eat they can be.”

There are no Tasmanian oils on supermarket shelves. The Tasmanian Olive Council has 53 grower members with about 20 brands between them, but none is providing the quantity at a price supermarkets require. Prices range from $100 per litre down to $15.

But Tasmanian Olive Council president Geoff Price said this year’s harvest was more than double that of any previous year and perhaps, for the first time, some of it would reach an age of more than a year.

Price said the Tasmanian olive harvest olives had hovered around the 100-tonne mark for several years, during which time the southeast corner has been very dry.

This year the crop looks like being more than double that – about 250 tonnes.

The state’s biggest producer, Rocky Caccavo of The Island Olive Groves, has produced more than 100 tonnes alone this year and fruit is still being harvested from some of the company’s 17,000 trees at Campania.

The week-on-week rain during winter last year has made all the difference. Price, whose Platypus Creek grove is at Orielton, says his dam had never filled in 12 years, but last winter about five times the amount the dam can hold overflowed into the creek.

“This harvest might give stores and shops a chance to promote Tasmanian olive oil,” said Price. “We’ve never had that circumstance before, there’s always been a shortage.”

And although almost all local olive oil has been sold in this state in the past, Miller believes “Tasmania is going to put its mark on the world this year”.

And, he said, he “would have no problem at all” with good Tasmanian oil that had been stored for more than a year.

Many Tasmanian olive oils beat the 0.8 per cent benchmark for fatty acids with levels of 0.2 or 0.3 per cent. This is an indication of the presence of beneficial polyphenols and, according to Price, “gives us our very long shelf life and also our intense flavour”.

As with wine grapes, olives benefit from the long, cooler growing season.

“There is something about the weather there,” said Miller. “It is cold but you get all that light – more light than they do in Tuscany.”

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