Yarras Products from Hastings Valley Olives, Birdwood, Australia

Harvesting

Hastings Valley Olives predominately uses mechanical harvesting to remove fruit from our 45,000 trees each year. However to maintain quality in table fruit, these varieties are hand picked and sorted.

Traditionally harvesting of all olives has always been by hand. In very old European groves harvesting was always a family affair. When harvest time came, farmers would rally the whole family with sticks and ladders to get the fruit off.

Today this tradition continues in many parts of the world where the cost of labour is affordable. Unfortunately the down side of this is often a poor quality oil.

To achieve high flavoured quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil the oil from the olives needs to be extracted as soon as possible after the fruit is harvested.

By utilising slow hand harvesting the fruit often sits for days before it is processed. During this time the fruit starts to ferment and builds fats and acids that ultimately exclude the final oil form the Extra Virgin category. Hence, a large percentage of traditional oils are virgin, light and pure as you can see by visiting any supermarket.

The problem for Australia and other countries, such as the U.S.A., is the cost of labour is not affordable and the size of the olive groves prohibits this practice. Hence Australia is one of the leading countries in the world in the development and implementation of mechanical harvesting solutions.

In our view the best of the best in this challenging endeavour is TASK Machinery at Wauchope on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia.

Tony Hawke and his team at TASK Machinery have developed a harvesting system that has never before been attempted. The HAWKE HARVESTER utilises sinuous action technology to move 90 harvesting rods vertically through the olive tree to remove fruit.

Extensive trials of the Hawke Harvester were carried out during the 2003 harvest in several parts of Australia. Four years after Tony conceived the concept of the Hawke Harvester it is now a working reality in full production.

One of the major advantages of the Hawke Harvester is that it allows growers to develop very large trees. The harvester will harvest trees up to 6 metres tall and nearly five metres wide. This gives growers the ability to maximise fruit yields on a per hectare basis thus making the grove more profitable.

Australian Orchard Machinery are the world wide distributors of the Hawke Harvester.

For more information on the Hawke Harvester please e-mail Sales Department or phone +61 2 6587 7225.

In Australia use Free Call 1 800 708 043.