| 95 Richard Loader More success at Olive Oil Awards The Olive Press was established as a commercial venture by 30 local Wairarapa olive growers 22 years ago, primarily to process their fruit into extra virgin olive oil. The Olive Press PRODUCTION Along with ‘Best Processor’ for the ninth year running plus a bounty of gold and silver awards, Wairarapa producer of premium quality extra virgin olive oil, The Olive Press, has been aptly rewarded with Best Boutique award for its ‘Pressed Gold’ Koroneiki, at this year’s Olives New Zealand Olive Oil Awards. “The Best Boutique trophy is a ‘best in show’ award for small volume runs of certified extra virgin olive oil,” says Chairman Rod Lingard. “This particular oil came from a Kapiti customer’s grove and we wanted to showcase their superb Koroneiki variety.” Rod says The Olive Press enters the Olives New Zealand awards each year to support the industry association, and to showcase the company’s talents and expertise for making New Zealand’s best extra virgin olive oil. “We focus 100% on producing the very best oil we can from the fruit that is presented, and we do that at a competitive and cost-effective rate. Given the scale of New Zealand’s industry, we offer a fantastic solution for most growers looking for the best quality extra virgin olive oil, without having to incur the cost of making it themselves.” The Olive Press was established as a commercial venture by 30 local Wairarapa olive growers 22 years ago, primarily to process their fruit into extra virgin olive oil. “We were more like a cooperative back then. Over the years, various shareholders have moved on or consolidated and The Olive Press has become more a family business, owned by my wife Katrina, brother Garry and myself, along with some minority foundation shareholders. “While our core business continues to be processing other growers’ olives, to become financially viable we’ve evolved to offer grove management services and, in some cases, buy the fruit. “However, since moving our operation to Greytown six years ago, we’ve grown from being just a toll processor, to also being a marketer and distributor of premium olive oil, primarily back to major oil businesses looking for certified extra virgin oil from a quality producer. “We also sell an increasing amount of bulk premium oils into the food service and food manufacturing sectors.” Servicing growers throughout the lower half of the North Island, The Olive Press has a number of groves on the Kapiti Coast, a large grove in Whanganui and recently harvested fruit from a 20,000 tree super-grove at Mohaka north of Napier. “We’re working with the iwi owner and operator to see if their grove can be devel- “Over the years, various shareholders have moved on or consolidated and The Olive Press has become more a family business...” oped back into a commercial operation. It has been a long time since a major new producer entered the olive oil business and while this is not a new grove, remediating it and getting it back into shape and planting other groves in that area is pretty exciting.” Already a zero-waste producer, with all olive mill waste being consented for discharge to land as fertiliser, The Olive Press has recently worked with Callaghan Innovation to research how the valuable bi-products could be better used. “We’re looking at building a plant to extract high-value biophenols from the waste streams to produce nutraceuticals and other functional foods and adding them to the growing list of products that we’re selling. That really is about hero-ing what olive oil is — a superfood for the ages.” Olives have been at the centre of some of the world’s most significant civilisations in ages past and Rod believes it has the capacity to be so again. “The New Zealand climate and soil types, particularly in the age of climate change is just fantastically well set up for the propagation and expansion of large-scale olive groves.” • Judged New Zealand’s “Best Processor” for last nine years • Won “Best Boutique” at 2022 Olives New Zealand Annual Awards • Won “Reserve Champion” at 2022 Australian International Olive Awards • Pressed all five NZ Golds at 2021 New York International Olive Oil Competition • Won “Best Flavoured Oil” at 2021, 2019, 2018 and 2017 Olives New Zealand Annual Awards • Pressed “Best in Show” for last five years at Olives New Zealand Annual Awards SupportingNewZealand’s leadingolivegrowerswithgrovemanagement services, oliveharvesting &processing, and theproduction, blending, bottling&distributionof premiumoliveoils. Contact – Katrina Bach, The Olive Press Limited, 14 Arbor Street, Greytown 5794 katrina@theolivepress.co.nz 027 446 1868 New Zealand’s most awarded producer of extra virgin olive oils “Central Group provides quality equipment to meet our customers needs” The Olive Press - Greytown, NZ Takeuchi TL12v2 Tracked Loader w/ Olive Tree Shaker Attachment Scan QR to see why we matched this loader with their operations Experts in Materials Handling, Construction Equipment, Transport Solutions - Let’s Talk - 0800 538 735 centralgroup.co.nz
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