Wonderful Modern Agricultural Animal Husbandry 6: Olive Oil, Olive Planting, Harvesting and Processing

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In today’s video, we show you the production process of olive oil from the moment the sapling is planted to the bottling of the finished product. Saplings are planted according to the type of plantation. It is most frequent every day to find intensive and super-intensive olive plantations. In intensive plantation, trees are planted at distance of 6X6 meters apart. Also to isolate the olive trees and improve the passage of air between them, The difference with super-intensive plantations is that trees are kept in a hedge shape, Up to 2000 olive trees per hectare are achieved, while the intensive does not exceed 600 per hectare, in today's video we show you the olive oil production process from sapling planting to finished bottling. Seedlings are planted according to the type of planting. Usually the most common are intensive and super-intensive olive plantations. In intensive planting, the tree planting spacing is 6X6 meters. In addition, in order to isolate olive trees and improve air circulation between them, the difference from ultra-dense plantations is that the trees maintain a hedge shape and can plant up to 2,000 olive trees per hectare, while ultra-intensive planting does not exceed 600 per hectare,

For the pruning of these hedge-like trees, special super intensive Olive Harvesters are used. They have the exact shape to perfectly shake the trees while sorting olives from leaves. These independent machines have a continuous unloading capacity. The larger fruit collection surface minimizes olives falling to the ground. Thanks to its large harvesting tunnel, this harvester manages to adapt to the different size of trees and trucks in super-intensive plantation. Through advanced sensor system, they achieve high precision in machine guidance. It’s all managed through a control panel and cameras from the cabin. In intensive plants, pruning is still performed manually, and the mechanical harvest is limited to every single plant, Works will sort fruits from leaves and branches afterward. There are several manual methods from more traditional plans like using material on the ground and dropping all the fruits there. It’s quicker than the hand-picking method, but it needs more space between trees. All pickers wear gloves to prevent cuts or minor wounds while working. The life expectancy of olive trees in super-intensive plans is approximately 13 or 20 years while in the intensive ones they can reach 40. To prune these hedge-like trees, a special ultra-intensive olive harvester is used. Their shape can shake the tree perfectly while separating the olives from the leaves. These stand-alone machines have the ability to unload continuously. The larger fruit collection surface minimizes the likelihood of olives falling to the ground. Thanks to its huge logging tunnels, the harvester is able to accommodate trees and trucks of different sizes in ultra-dense plantations. Through an advanced sensor system, they achieve high-precision machine guidance. This is all managed through the control panel and cameras in the cabin. In dense plants, pruning is still done manually, and mechanical harvesting is limited to each plant, after which the staff will sort the fruit from the leaves and branches. There are several manual methods from more traditional farms, such as using materials on the ground and dropping all the fruit there. It is faster than the hand-picking method, but requires more tree spacing. All pickers wear gloves to prevent cuts or minor injuries while working. In the ultra-intensive plan, the life expectancy of olive trees is about 13 or 20 years, while in the intensive plan it can reach 40 years.

Spain is the first producer of olives in the world, Since 2014, Spain’s olives production rose 15%,year on year totalizing 9176929 metric tons. The second on the list is Italy, with 1945324 metric tons. Olives are the most extensively cultivated fruit crop in the world. Olive oil is produced by grinding olives and extracting the oil by mechanical or chemical means. Green olives usually produce more bitter oil. Overripe olives can produce oil with fermentation defects, so for good extra virgin olive oil care is taken to make sure the olives are perfectly ripened. The olives are ground into a paste using large millstone, following the traditional method. The olives paste generally stays under the stones for 30 to 40 minutes. A shorter grinding process may result in a more raw paste that produces less oil and has a less ripe taste. After grinding, the olive paste is spread on fiber disks which are stacked on top of each other in a column. Pressure is then applied onto the column to separate the vegetal liquid from the paste. Traditionally the oil was shed from the water by gravity, as oil is less dense than water. This process has been replaced by centrifugation. The centrifuges have one exit for the watery part and one for the oil. Olive oil should not contain significant traces of vegetal water as this accelerates the process of organic degeneration by microorganisms. Sometines the produced oil will be filtered to eliminate remaining solid particles. Labels may indicate the fact that the oil has not been filtered, suggesting a different taste. No-filtered oil has seen a growth in demand, in line with consumers’ needs for products that are perceived to be less processed.

Spain is the world's first olive-producing country, and since 2014, olive production in Spain has increased by 15% year-on-year, totaling 9176929 metric tons. In second place is Italy, 1945324 metric tons. Olives are the most widely grown fruit crop in the world. Olive oil is produced by grinding olives and extracting olive oil by mechanical or chemical methods. Green olives usually produce a more bitter oil. Overripe olives can produce oil with fermentation defects, so care must be taken to ensure that the olives are fully ripe to obtain a high-quality extra virgin olive oil. Following the traditional method, the olives are ground into a paste with large grinding stones. The olive paste usually stays under the stones for 30 to 40 minutes. A shorter grinding process may result in a coarser paste with less oil and a less mature taste. After grinding, the olive paste is applied to the fiber discs, which are stacked together in a columnar manner. Pressure is then applied to the column to separate the plant liquid from the paste. Traditionally, oil is shed from water by gravity because the density of oil is lower than that of water. This process has been replaced by centrifuges. The centrifuge has one outlet for the aqueous part and the other for oil. Olive oil should not contain significant plant water, as this accelerates the organic degradation process of microorganisms. In some cases, the resulting oil will be filtered to remove the remaining solid particles. Labels may indicate that the oil is unfiltered, indicating a different taste. Based on consumer demand for products that are less processed, demand for no filtered oil has grown.

The video shows the olive farms in Spain and the processing of olive oil, I once visited the olive tree plantation and olive oil processing plant in the olive oil producing area of Izmir (Izmir) in Turkey around 2015, and the biggest memory is that the last stage of olive oil production is filtration, which uses wooden fibers, which they import in China.