California is in a position to some day end this country’s reliance on foreign oil — olive oil, that is. Chalk it up to more olive trees and new mills that crush olives into extra virgin olive oil. Even wineries are jumping into the olive oil business. All that has helped push California’s olive oil output up more than 25% this year, positioning the Golden state to surpass France.
The latest batch of good news comes from industry officials and a survey conducted by an olive oil industry trade group.
“California has the potential to increase production to meet all of the U.S. olive oil demand,” says the survey from the California Olive Oil Council. “Clearly, this is an extraordinary opportunity for the California olive oil industry.”
Self-sufficiency would be a sea change for this country when it comes to olive oil — although we still have a long way to go.
“That’s the goal,” says Patty Darragh, the COOC’s executive director. “We certainly want to have a bigger piece of the pie.”
The United States currently imports nearly 99% percent of the olive oil we consume. Most of the imported olive oil comes from the Mediterranean basin, including like Italy, Spain and Greece.
The COOC survey points out California produces “almost all of the domestic extra virgin olive oil consumed in the U.S.” But that only amounts to about 1% of total U.S. olive oil consumption. The trade group surveyed olive growers, olive oil producers, and olive tree nurseries.
The nation’s consumption of olive oil has more than doubled since the mid-1990s, climbing to some 70 million gallons last year — or a quarter of a gallon per American — from around 30 million gallons.
The COOC’s Darragh says California’s annual olive oil production is set to exceed 1 million gallons in the current 2010 olive harvest, up from 870,000 gallons last year. “At 1.1 million gallons we should surpass France this year,” she tells us.
Looking ahead, the University of California Davis Olive Center expects U.S. olive oil production reach to about 15 million gallons in the next decade, according to the survey.
Why the increase? The number of olive mills and olive trees are growing. (We’ve been planting our own trees at a rapid pace and expanding one of our own mills.) Also, says the survey, wineries are planting trees and establishing their own milling facilities, including Jordan Vineyard & Winery, Preston Vineyards, and Silverado Vineyards.
Bon appétit,
Claude S. Weiller
Vice President of Sales & Marketing
California Olive Ranch
It can happen! In Australia – another new world producer focussed on quality – around 1/2 of all EVOO sales and shelf space in supermarkets is now grown and produced in Australia. Most importantly, the majority of growth in EVOO sales is also local oils, all in the face of a massive 10 to 1 advertising budget in favour of the EU product. Put good fresh EVOO on the market at a realistic price then people will buy them in droves. Keep the faith.
Sorry, but do the math:
In 2010-11, the USA will produce oil for about 2% of the USA’s olive oil consumption on about 25,000 acres. This means that we would have to plant another 1.25 million acres of olives to “end this country’s reliance on foreign olive oil”.
Some of the existing 25,000 acres are not in production yet so many have estimated that we would have to plant 300-500,000 acres to meet current USA consumption levels, which are rising faster than we can plant.
France produces almost nothing – not even 1% of the world’s olive oil, so surpassing France is no big deal.
Lets get real. Its a huge market, which we will never fill and there are plenty of great oils from Chile, Australia, Spain, Italy, Greece, Argentina, Morocco, Tunisia, Portugal, etc. Not all are good, but there are some that are fantastic. There is room for everyone in this market.
Paul Vossen
A viable extra virgin olive oil industry no matter where it is depends on sustainable water and the producer’s carbon footprint. Australia and Calfornia horticultural industries leave a very deep global imprint especially when it comes to olive oil production as does Spain where the majority of Italian Oil appears to come from. The vast majority of oil produced in these climates is very average from a health and a culinary point of view requiring expensive agrichemical inuts. The world is not waiting with baited breath for yet another average,hot climate,marginal oil with only average health benefits. Olive oil isn’t wine.It does not develop flavour in the bottle. It does not improve with age it goes rancid. The more robust an extra virgin is the healthier she is. Consumers are getting savvy that is why the show system of marketing oil is the equivalent of flogging a dead horse and will never gain the traction that wine awards have.The show system is encouraging mediocrity in an industry that can’t afford it as you are simple Aldi Australia tested Australian produced olive oil against an imported oil using a neutral Australian agency not paid for by Big Italian advertising dollars but by Aldi themselves. Even with food miles built into the equation Australian oil is proving too expensive environmentally and is unsustainable.The Aldi test did not factor in water imprint concerns either a factor in the Australian olive producer’s favour. If Aldi had used water imprint factors too the picture would have shown an even grimmer picture. Water imprint issues also have huge relevance in Spain and California.