Olives are grown and oil is produced traditionally on the fringes of the Mediterranean, with Greece, Spain, Italy, France and Tunisia accounting for most of the oil produced. Increasingly, however, there are new entrants to the market with producers in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and California.
The olive harvest begins in Autumn but the exact time depends on whether the olives are destined for eating or oil production. Not all the fruit on an olive tree is ready for gathering at the same time and pickers will return to a tree many times during the course of a harvest. Fruit for oil production is taken as soon as it reaches optimum ripeness when it will yield the maximum oil with the most flavour.
In many regions, olives are beaten from the trees with long poles and the fruit is caught in large nets. Many farmers now harvest using tractors with claws which grasp the trunk of the tree and then vibrate to shake dislodge the fruit. But the best method of harvesting is by hand - picking each fruit and carefully placing it in a basket to avoid damage as bruised fruit produces poor quality oil.
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