Mónica Bauzá. (Mendoza, Argentina). Agricultural Engineer. Master in Ciencia de los Alimentos. Consulting Professor at the National University of Cuyo.
Changes in Argentinian Olive Growing
Undoubtedly changes are the challenges that open the door to new opportunities, but at the same time, it is very important to remember the past.
As Joyce Meyer, author of several books said, «Learn from the past, prepare for the future, but live in the present.»
Olive cultivation has been practiced since colonial times, although it spread very slowly, for complex reasons that go beyond technical aspects. Past experience should serve as a basis for a future that looks more promising.
The introduction of the olive tree is not yet clear. It seems that after the conquest of the Inca empire, the Spaniard Pedro de Valdivia, who was part of Pizarro’s army, led the conquest of Chile and, through him, brought olive tree stakes from Spain to the neighboring country and then crossed over to the other side of the mountain range, which is present day Argentina.
From Chile and in 1558, in an expedition under the command of the Spanish conqueror Diego de Alvarado, the first olive trees were planted in the Argentinean province of La Rioja. During the time of the colony, interesting experiences with the olive tree were carried out in Argentina, but without experiencing an extensive growth.
At the end of 1890 and beginning of 1900, agriculture was the main activity with a rapidly growing immigration of Italians, Spaniards and French. They continued with their Mediterranean food habits, which included the consumption of olive oil from Spain and Italy.
In 1922, according to information in Argentina, 2.9 L per inhabitant per year was consumed and in 2020, a century later, consumption is at 250-300mL per inhabitant per year.
Due to a series of changes worldwide, starting from the year 30, olive oil was no longer imported in barrels but in cans and glass containers. But what seemed to be the problem with local production was that it took at least 8 to 9 years after planting of the olive groves to the first harvest.
The first olive trees in Argentina were not planted in clear and open plots of land, but in the paths or interspersed within vineyards.
In the years 1935 to 1939 and due to the wine crisis, there was a change in favor of olive growing and olive trees started to be planted in several provinces in the west of Argentina. It was promoted with laws of promotion at national level, there was a new fervor for Olive growing. A slogan even appeared which stated «Make this your homeland, plant an olive tree».
In our Olive Growing, there have been a number of changes in the last decades, of which I will mention only a few.
Varieties
There are plantations of varieties that are over a hundred years old, mainly of Spanish and Italian origin, such as the Arauco, Farga, Manzanilla, Empeltre and Frantoio cultivars.
Later, in the first stage of expansion, varieties such as Arbequina, Coratina, Picual were imported. After, public institutions and private companies introduced other cultivars, such as Arbosana from Spain and Barnea from Israel.
The result was that some olive groves adapted very well to the different areas of Argentina, while others failed completely.
Technological aim
The final destination of those olives is very important as it is meant for the elaboration of preserves or to obtain Virgin Olive Oil. In this sense, the varieties of olives for preserving, for oil or the so-called dual-purpose olives are classified in this way due to the characteristics of the fruit, fat content and consumer habits.
The Arauco cultivar’s main purpose was to preserve fermented green or black olives in brine, highly demanded by the Argentine consumer, but with a very important demand for Brazil.
In Mendoza, around 1990, jointly with a producer and a project from the National University of Cuyo, the first varietal obtainment of Extra Virgin Olive Oil was elaborated.
This oil is currently very successful as an intense Virgin olive oil with hints such as fruity green, grass, spicy, bitter. It is considered as the emblem of Argentinean Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Olive grove planting
Most of the olive trees cultivated were old trees, planted and managed in the traditional way, with soil tillage and irrigation by flooding, melga or furrows. Almost all of them were made among the vineyards and also among other species such as plums, peaches, quinces. There used to be a great variability in quantity between the olive plants, but it then became common to have one hundred per hectare.
Later, with the change, there was a different technological package: plants obtained from productive material, high planting density, pressurized irrigation, fertirrigation, zero soil tillage, a high degree of mechanization, including mechanical harvesting.
In the new olive growing with table and oil varieties, the planting density is over three hundred plants per hectare. A very commonly chosen distance is 6-8 m between rows and 4 m between plants in the row.
With the Arbequina variety, which is very widespread in Argentina, it is 7 m between rows and 3.5 m between plants, which means that more than 400 plants are planted per hectare.
The first experiments carried out in our country contained 1000 plants per hectare.
The harvest
At present, there are different procedures.
In the world of olive growing, there are various vibrating harvesting machines.
Several trials have been carried out with coffee and vine harvesters. Each of them has given relatively encouraging results. The vine harvester has been used for the harvest of the olive tree in Argentina, but in this innovation the fact that the crops have to be prepared for these kind of machines has to be taken into account.
From 2003-2004 there were no appropriate machines, but from those years producers started to use machines better adapted to their own needs.
In general, and especially in the province of Mendoza, there are new plantations which, if properly driven, harvest with the vibrating machines rather than the self-propelled harvesting ones, which produce damage that are taken advantage of by tuberculosis – a bacteria- that has been detected in the entire olive growing area of the country.
Timing of the harvest
The olive tree’s fruit is a drupe, it is composed of three tissues: exocarp (skin), mesocarp (pulp) and endocarp (stone). The mesocarp is the one that presents greater commercial importance because it is edible part in table olives and it is the tissue where more than 95% of the oil is accumulated.
The color of the skin and pulp has been considered an indicator of the maturity of the olive, varying from an intense green color to color of the skin and purple pulp until arriving at the pit. It is notable that during these stages there was an evolution in the fat (oil) content and chemical changes.
At present, to obtain Premium Extra Virgin Olive oils, lipogenesis is harvested, and the fruit is formed with a green color with reddish spots (veraison).
It is certain that the yields will be lower than with a more advanced maturity index, but the quality of the oil obtained will possess characteristics with positive organoleptic attributes and with chemical components very important for detecting quality, oxidative stability and for its characterization.
Obtaining Virgin Olive Oil
A very profound change has been the technology used to process the olives.
Several methods are known for obtaining Virgin Olive Oil, but we will mention the discontinuous and continuous methods.
The first one applies simple pressure, in the milling stage Spanish or Italian type stone mills are used and later presses are used. On the other hand, the continuous ones use horizontal centrifugation (decanter) and then vertical centrifuges. These in turn can be of three or two phases.
The two-phase system became widespread in the 70s and 80s, and with this system operating costs were cut, the olives were stored before being processed and the quality of the oil was improved.
The different olive oil equipment companies have continued to design and innovate apparatus, in order to achieve an increasingly higher quality in obtaining virgin olive oil.
Today, there are still discontinuous systems in use, with Italian and Spanish mills – as I mentioned- that produce virgin olive oils, requested by a traditional niche of consumers who are loyal to this type of oil, which usually has defects.
Marketing
It is the process through which the product arrives from the point of production to the point of consumption.
The change in this area has been packaging, transport, distribution logistics, sales and after-sales services. There is also a very noticeable influence on what is product marketing.
In Extra Virgin Olive Oil there has been a great change in terms of packaging, labels, secondary packaging, all in close relation with consumers that require «many needs.»
Consumers
Although there is a group of people who are guided by their tastes and sensations, most regular consumers of Extra Virgin Olive Oil make subjective assessments and evaluations in a hedonistic way. It is the use of «pleasure» that provides these tests, designated as «hedonistic tasting,» since there is a diversity of sensory characteristics in these oils.
In the last decades, Extra Virgin Olive Blends have been launched in the market. They are cuts of different varietals or of mentioned varietals, such as: Arauco, Coratina, Picual, Frantoio, Manzanilla, Arbequina. Of these oils there is not one that is better than another, they are different and it is very important that the consumer knows how to detect them.
Finally, there is a phrase by Charles Darwin about the experiencing changed that I consider very appropriate for the time we are living in:
“It is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt.”