IN a classic case of “shipping coals to Newcastle”, one of Australia’s largest olive plantations is exporting almost all of its high quality virgin olive oil production to Italy.
Montoro Olive Groves has 110,000 trees in the ground at Hillston in the south west of NSW, covering about 310 hectares on the 700ha property, “Bumilda”.
Chairman of the company is the founder of the big construction company, Abigroup Ltd, Gennaro Abignano, who migrated to Australia from Italy in 1954.
The Hillston district was selected because its hot dry summers and mild wet winters were considered excellent for ripening the fruit.
Montoro imported olive plants of five different varieties from Italy in 2001 – Morailo, Frantoio, Leccino, Pendolino and Coratina – which were carefully selected for the quality of their oil.
Full story in The Land, August 20.
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