Let’s get back to our Olive Orchard for The New Crescent. Time to take a practical look at the olive orchard project.
Assumptions
Orchard size
100 acres
orchard size
Trees per acre
300
high-density but not super-high
Establishment (cost per acre)
$5,000
initial planting, irrigation, infrastructure
Annual maintenance (per acre)
$800
pruning, irrigation, fertilizer, pest control
Price per gallon of Olive Oil (wholesale)
$20
premium branded olive oil wholesale price
Oil yield per ton
30
gallons per ton of olives
Elder G breaks out some of the numbers for us:
Year
Tons per Acre
Gallons per Acre
Total Gallons
Revenue ($)
Costs ($)
Profit ($)
1
0.0
0
0
0
580,000
-580,000
2
0.0
0
0
0
80,000
-80,000
3
0.5
15
1,500
30,000
80,000
-50,000
4
1.5
45
4,500
90,000
80,000
10,000
5
3.0
90
9,000
180,000
80,000
100,000
6
4.5
135
13,500
270,000
80,000
190,000
7
5.5
165
16,500
330,000
80,000
250,000
8
6.0
180
18,000
360,000
80,000
280,000
9
6.5
195
19,500
390,000
80,000
310,000
10
7.0
210
21,000
420,000
80,000
340,000
Breakdown of the per-year costs for the established 100 acre olive orchard:
Expense Category
Annual Cost (USD)
Labor (pruning, irrigation, maintenance, harvest)
$45,000.00
Irrigation (water + energy)
$12,000.00
Fertilizers & Soil Amendments
$8,000.00
Pest & Disease Management
$5,000.00
Equipment Maintenance & Fuel
$7,000.00
Insurance (crop & liability)
$3,000.00
Property Taxes
$2,500.00
Administrative & Miscellaneous
$3,500.00
Total
Total Annual Expenses
$86,000.00
Olive Oil
Making olive oil can be broken into the following steps:
grow olives
gather ripe olives
crush olives
squeeze olives
Olive oil is a vegetable oil obtained by pressing whole olives (the fruit of Olea europaea, a traditional tree crop of the Mediterranean Basin) and extracting the oil.
By Poyraz 72 – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=44035447
It is commonly used in cooking for frying foods, as a condiment, or as a salad dressing. It can also be found in some cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, soaps, and fuels for traditional oil lamps. It also has additional uses in some religions.
The earliest surviving olive oil amphorae date to 3500 BC (Early Minoan times), though the production of olive oil is assumed to have started before 4000 BC.
WLBOTT Word-of-the-Day:
WMOS: WLBOTT Museum of Old Stuff
Photos from the WLBOTT Museum of Old Stuff:
The museum has free admission on Tuesdays, and Thursdays are 2-for-1 Frito Chili Pies at the WMOS gift shop and cafetorium.
The Dark Side of Olive Oil
Olive oil is 3 to 4 times as expensive as many other vegetable oils. Elder G offers some commodity price estimates:
Oil Type
Approx. Commodity Price (USD/gallon)
Soybean Oil
~$4.42
Palm Oil
~$3.63
Rapeseed Oil
~ $4.79/gal
Canola Oil
~ $5.75 – $8.76/gal
Sunflower Oil
Not directly priced—but likely ~$4–$5
Although heavily regulated in the EU, the price differential invites organized crime: the agri-mafia.
The bad guys take cheap oil, add chlorophyll and artificial flavors, and voila! knock-off olive oil
Journalist Tom Mueller has investigated crime and adulteration in the olive oil business, publishing the article “Slippery Business” in New Yorker magazine, followed by the 2011 book Extra Virginity. On 3 January 2016 Bill Whitaker presented a program on CBS News including interviews with Mueller and with Italian authorities. It was reported that in the previous month, 5,000 tons of adulterated olive oil had been sold in Italy, and that organised crime was heavily involved—the term “Agrimafia” was used. The point was made by Mueller that the profit margin on adulterated olive oil was three times that on the illegal narcotic drug cocaine. He said that over 50% of olive oil sold in Italy was adulterated, as was 75–80% of that sold in the US. Whitaker reported that three samples of “extra virgin olive oil” had been bought in a US supermarket and tested; two of the three samples did not meet the required standard, and one of them—from a top-selling US brand—was exceptionally poor.
At The New Crescent, we pledge to only offer pure, properly graded olive oil, and will respectfully abide by all EU regulations.
In fact, we will provide The New Crescent with the full backing of TASK FORCE WLBOTT to combat the criminal element.
Even the Agri-mafia knows now to mess with TASK FORCE WLBOTT.
Actual body cam footage from America’s Most Unctuous showing Task Force WLBOTT in action.
WLBOTT’s 2nd Word-of-the-Day
An Unfortunate Exploitation of WLBOTT’s Good Name
And who can forget the hit 70’s crime drama, Charlie’s Druids? One popular episode was based on TASK FORCE WLBOTT.
Against WLBOTT’s strenuous objections, Charlie’s Druids chose to objectify our Druid Enforcers, and we decided to take legal action. Come on, who fights crime in their bathing suit? To be clear, WLBOTT opposes the objectification of all peoples and barnyard animals.
The following stills from the May 1973 episode of Charlie’s Druids were submitted as evidence in the civil trial. The case was settled out-of-court for an undisclosed sum of money.
