29 minute read
AIOA Best of Show as good as a holiday
The Olive Twist grove is in an ideal location, on well-draining sloping land and with plenty of wind keeping pests and diseases at bay.
Settling into life with a six-week old baby sounds like a great time to buy a holiday house - but when that house includes 550 olive trees, we all know there won’t be much of a holiday involved.
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That’s just what Olive Twist owners Julianne and George Bakogiannis did, however, setting themselves on the path to producing this year’s Australian International Olive Awards Best Flavoured Oil of Show.
The Victorian producers were one of the 2021 competition’s highest scoring entrants, with the Olive Twist Lime Agrumato awarded a soaring 95 points by the judges. Earning a high Gold medal, the Lime Agrumato then went on to take the trophies for Champion Agrumato Olive Oil and Best Flavoured Olive Oil of Show.
Olive Twist’s Lemon Agrumato also earned a Silver medal in this year’s AIOA, cementing a reputation founded on Gold and Silver medal wins in a number of previous competitions.
Confirmation and confidence
Julianne and George said the win has given them confidence in their products and methodologies.
“It makes us very proud,” they said.
“It’s confirmation that you’re doing the right thing: for any job you do, it’s nice to get that pat on the back, to know we’re on the right track and our oils are good quality.
“And especially as we came into this with blinkers on. It shows that we now really know what we’re doing.” Background
The Bakogiannises bought their property in 2010, when George said he wanted to buy a holiday house. Nestled in the South Gippsland hills near Jumbunna, Julianne said it wasn’t what they were originally looking for.
“It was over our budget, and a lot bigger than we were looking at, but we just fell in love with it,” she said.
“We knew immediately it wasn’t a holiday house, it was a sea change.
“There were 550 olive trees, which were about eight years old when we bought it, so we got into olives purely by chance. But George grew up on a vineyard, and his Mum had olive trees, so he knew what hard work it was and had that background of looking after things. It was a bit of going back to his roots really.”
While those roots were there, taking on the grove was a big learning curve for an accountant (George) and a disability carer (Julianne).
“We went to a lot of expos for the first couple of years, including one in Italy, and George has done the courses with the AOA as well. We learned a lot from those,” Julianne said.
“But mostly we learned from local olive growers - that was a lifesafer.
“We were always going over to their groves and seeing what they were doing; bouncing questions off them. We found everyone really helpful, whereas other industries they’d tell you to piss off. We were just so lucky that olive people are so generous, and so passionate about what they do.
“We returned the favour with another guy who came up to us at the market, and he won his first Gold medal at the AIOA this year!”
Grove practices
Olive Twist’s trees are mainly Frantoio and Corregiola, with a few Nevadillo Blanco and some Kalamata. They’re planted to traditional spacing, in most years are dry grown and are hand-picked early in the season.
“In the last couple of years we’ve watered them with hoses from the water tanks, as it has been quite dry,” George said.
“If the leaves start going a bit yellow over Christmas time when it’s scorching hot, we’ll give them a big drench. We’ve got a giant tank, 200,000 litres, so we have plenty of water. But this year we’ve had constant good rains, so they’re pretty happy.
“The varieties all ripen at a different stage, so we just jump around the paddock as they ripen. If the crop is good we keep the varieties separate, if it’s smaller we mix it together.
“And we keep the Nevadillo Blanco separate. We like to pick when they’re still green and they ripen a lot quicker than anything else, so often by the time you get down there they’re gone. In the last couple of years we haven’t picked them, though, so they haven’t really cropped much since.”
Stone mill processing
Julianne and George make both EVOO and flavoured oils, and specialise in citrus oils. All are hand-made using a rare agrumato stone mill press.
“It’s the old-fashioned method. There are only two left in Australia, although we believe it’s the only working one now,” Julianne said.
“When we first got it we knew nothing about them, so again we relied on the olive industry to help us: we contacted the only other working stone mill press left in Australia and went over to learn from him. He was a great help.
“It can do up to 200kg of olives per hour as a continuous process but for our flavoured oils, we do 100kg of olives and 20-25kg of citrus. We crush the citrus for a good hour, then it goes into the malaxer as well, whereas I think others add the citrus straight into the malaxer.
“We usually do lemon, lime, blood orange and mandarin – we previously won a Best in Show with our mandarin – but this year we only produced the lime and the lemon.
“We also do infusions of truffle, garlic, chilli, and plain EVOO - sometimes Frantoio, sometimes Frantoio and Corregiolo.”
Double act
Like most boutique olive businesses, Olive Twist is a two-person operation.
“I’m the general dog’s body, George is the brains. We do everything together,” Julianne said.
“We used to use a lot of WOOFERs and I do all that, looking after them, organising them. George is out there picking as well and he’s the presser, operating the machinery. That’s beyond me.
“But I do the bottling and labelling, and selling at the markets.”
Markets and marketing
That’s an important job, as 80% of Olive Twist’s sales happen at those markets, with the other 20% online or through local gourmet shops. They’re hoping that might change into the future.
“Farmers markets are classed as an essential service, so they’ve continued during COVID but with less stalls,” they said.
“When we first started we used to make double what we make now because there were fewer markets. Now every man and his dog runs Share, ask and give it a go
Having gone from property buyers “with blinkers on” to Best of Show producers, we reckon Julianne and George have some pretty good advice to share with other producers learning the ropes. Here are their top tips: “Share information. “Ask questions. “People think it’s easy but it’s a lot of hard work. It you want to get into the business, think about all the steps involved and make sure you can manage them before you start. “And don’t think you’re going to make a lot of money out of it; many growers are just likely to meet their costs. You need to have other avenues for earning, especially if you’re really small. We fund it from the businesses we’re running now, and eventually we hope we can make it a business which covers itself. “So overall, realise it’s not going to be easy but give it a go.”
The Olive Twist Lime Agrumato wasn’t their only winner this year, with the Lemon Agrumato awarded a silver medal.
Julianne and George are diversifying Olive Twist’s business, building seven yurts throughout the olive grove for tourist accommodation.
one, so we do three times as many markets as we used to but you don’t make so much at each individual market.
“But we’ve formed a group of local growers, Southern Gippsland Olives. We’re trying to promote the area as a great olive growing region and that between us we’re producing great olive oil. We’ve got an online co-op shop and everyone provides one of their oils, which we sell as a six-pack – a taste around the region, so they can compare and contrast.
“People can also go onto the SGO website and order individual producers’ products.”
Crushing quality
As with all our winners, we asked what they think it is that makes Olive Twist’s products worthy of a ‘Best of’ award.
“I think the stone mill press, and that we crush the citrus first. I think others add the citrus straight into the malaxer,” Julianne said.
“The decanter we’ve got is a good one for citrus oil, we use only good quality olives, and we use really good quality, locally-grown citrus as well, picked on the morning of pressing. Then it’s just those things which ensure the best quality: we pick the olives and process straightaway, store in stainless steel containers, use floating lids, etc.
“And obviously also the location. It’s slopey land, so even with excess water it’s never boggy, and it's windy, which means we have no real problems with pests and diseases.”
Business boost
Julianne and George said that, while their AIOA Best of Show is a ‘pat on the back’ personally, it’s also provides an important boost for their business.
“Especially in the current times we’re in, when people can’t taste the oil, the fact that you’ve got a medal makes a huge difference,” George said.
“One year we put all four citrus oils in the competition and got three Gold and a Silver. It made a massive impact on our sales.
“Agrumato oil is expensive to make: you don’t get as much yield from it and then there’s the extra cost of the citrus. And with Agrumato, if you make 200L and it doesn’t sell, you’re left with it, and if it all sells you can’t make any more.
“But awards like these give consumers the proof that it’s really good, and with the stickers on there, it just walks out the door. It speaks for itself and people will buy it, so you know you’re going to have strong sales.”
Industry value
The Bakogiannises also believe that quality competitions like the AIOA are important to the industry as a whole.
“Everyone looks up to the opinion of judges and it gets people realising that there are different grades of oil. Initially people were a bit sceptical and in the last 8-10 years it’s made a big difference to how people think about olive oil - 20 years ago any old oil would have done,” George said.
“It’s good because a lot of the oldies think the best oil is from Europe – even my Mum was hard to convince – but awards like these show them that local oils are really good.
“The big producers have helped too, both with their marketing and getting really good quality oil into the big supermarkets. That’s just brilliant for the whole industry.”
More information: www.olivetwist.com.au.
THE LATEST UPDATES ON R&D WITHIN THE OLIVE INDUSTRY | DECEMBER 2021
R&D Insights contains the latest levy-funded R&D project updates, research findings and related industry resources, which all happen under the Hort Innovation Olive Fund. Hort Innovation partners with leading service providers to complete a range of R&D projects to ensure the long-term sustainability and profitability of the olive industry.
In parts of Europe, Xf has completely devastated olive groves. Picture: Sjor/Wikimedia Commons.
Tackling a global crop pandemic - from the air
Professor Pablo J. Zarco-Tejada and Dr Tomas Poblete, University of Melbourne
The ongoing National Xylella Preparedness Program, a joint initiative of Hort Innovation, Wine Australia and Plant Health Australia, aims to proactively ensure rapid detection and management should an incursion of Australia’s number one pest threat, Xylella fastidiosa, occur. The program has supported research into innovative detection methods, which allow remote monitoring of tree condition with the ability to separate biotic (living, e.g. disease) and abiotic (non-living, e.g. drought) stresses. The new research complements the work of the tree crop remote sensing project featured in the September edition of R&D Insights, and is explained in this overview by the lead researchers.
The spread of the Xylella fastidiosa (Xf) bacteria is a huge threat to global agriculture, but research is enhancing our capacity to detect it in crops using airborne monitoring. This so-far incurable bacterial disease causes plants to wither and possibly die, scorching and browning leaves and reducing the size of fruit in a wide variety of important crops including olive, almond, avocado, coffee, grapevine, citrus, along with many herbaceous and forest species. It could also infect native Australian and ornamental plants. Overseas, Xf is arguably the greatest disease threat to food security and agricultural productivity worldwide. In Apulia, Italy, Xf has left devastating scenes of dead and dying olive trees in its wake and it could cost $US22 billion to control the outbreak there over the next 50 years. If it spreads through Europe the losses in just the olive industry alone are projected to reach up to €5.2 billion per year.
Already widely distributed in the Americas, it has now been identified in Spain, France, Israel, Iran and Taiwan, raising international alarms about the potential for a global Xf epidemic.
Find it early The key to containing Xf is early detection, which isn’t easy given that some infections don’t cause visual symptoms for 8-10 months. And during this period, the asymptomatic plants continue to be infectious. But our new research takes us a step closer to developing a rapid and more accurate large-scale screening process of at-risk crop species by enhancing the effectiveness of airborne scanning using hyperspectral imaging. Hyperspectral images allow us to “see” in more fine-grained wavelengths, and our previous research has already demonstrated that we can use it to detect Xf in olive trees before symptoms were visible.
Identifying stressors But a common problem is that the remote sensing algorithms that scan the hyperspectral images can’t always distinguish the symptoms of Xf from the symptoms of other pathogens or environmental stress like lack of water or nutrients. This aspect is particularly relevant for pathogens like Xf that invade a plant’s vascular (circulatory) system because the bacteria eventually block the water flow, causing similar symptoms that can be wrongly attributed to lack of water. Just as visibility and rapid testing were essential to managing COVID-19 in humans before the deployment of vaccines, we need to be able to see where Xf is present and where it isn’t, while reducing false positives, where an algorithm incorrectly indicates Xf due to other factors. Published recently in Nature Communications, our research with international partners from the EU, UK and US demonstrates that hyperspectral imaging and a novel algorithm can distinguish the disease from water-induced stress. It can also increase Xf detection to as high as 92% accuracy, while reducing uncertainty to below 6% across different hosts, including almond and olive, and across other vascular pathogens.
The technology The research is based on scanning one million infected and healthy trees in seven regions in Europe. The technology used in this study is available in Australia as part of our Airborne Remote Sensing Facility - HyperSens Lab, established across the Faculties of Veterinary and Agricultural Sciences (FVAS) and Engineering and Information Technology (FEIT) at the University of Melbourne.
With two hyperspectral imagers and one thermal camera, the facility can scan thousands of hectares in the visible, near-infrared and thermal spectral regions of light, generating images where every single tree or vegetation pixel is acquired with hundreds of narrow spectral wavebands. By using algorithms based on physical models and machine learning, we can retrieve spectral plant traits directly linked with the physiological condition and stress levels of each tree, generating a pool of spectral screening indicators related to subtle changes occurring to infected vegetation. In a trial in Victoria last year, funded by the Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment (DAWE) as part of the Plant Biosecurity and Response Reform (PBRR), we were able to scan several thousand hectares of healthy almond, citrus and olive trees with varying water and nutrient status levels as baselines, to better adapt the Xf detection models developed in Europe for the particular varieties and management practices in Australian agriculture. These methods enable the collection and delivery to the grower of water stress and nutrient maps for each tree in an orchard within 24 hours. These are innovative precision agriculture technologies to support the efficient use of resources and
Hyperspectral image data gathered on flights are analysed for traits linked to plant health at resolutions that allow assessment for each tree.
Remote monitoring of tree condition can provide rapid detection of pest and diseases, drastically reducing the risk of our growers ever having to do this. Image: James Hook©, Getty Images.
Found something scary in your grove? Or just not sure?
optimizing yields while protecting the environment.
Biosecurity and food security And in the context of biosecurity, if an Xf outbreak occurs in Australia or elsewhere, our methods could potentially be used to rapidly detect and prevent the spread of the disease. Global warming and international trade are causing unprecedented risks to agriculture, particularly with emerging and re-emerging pathogens that cause yield losses exceeding 30% in food-deficit regions with fast-growing populations. At the same time, we need to increase global food production by 50% in the next 30 years to achieve food security.
Where to from here? These facts underscore the importance of developing global plant disease and precision agriculture monitoring methods that use advanced technologies. But the answer isn’t only to be found in technological advances, but also in collaborative research across disciplines. The future requires joint efforts between agricultural and engineering disciplines to create networks of hyperspectral sensors mounted on drones, as well as high-altitude drones and satellites that can concurrently screen for disease outbreaks and assess water and nutrient limitations at a global scale. Until we get there, the rapid detection through airborne and drone-based hyperspectral imaging is our best hope for protecting Australia’s $A15 billion horticulture industry and preventing Xf’s spread around the world.
Source: www.nature.com - ZarcoTejada, P.J., Poblete, T., Camino, C. et al. Divergent abiotic spectral pathways unravel pathogen stress signals across species. Nat Commun 12, 6088 (2021). https://doi. org/10.1038/s41467-021-26335-3.
Above and right: Field days, webinars and updates of industry R&D reports are just some of the outputs of the olive industry communications and extension project.
Communications and extension project extended
The ongoing stream of industry information and learning is set to continue, with an extension to the olive levy project Australian olive industry communications and extension program (OL18000).
Run by the Australian Olive Association (AOA), over the past three years the project has provided outstanding knowledge transfer opportunities across a wide range of timely and relevant industry topics. The initial project period was set to end in September this year, however it has now been extended to June 2022 to ensure continuity of information dissemination around a number of ongoing projects and events.
What it does Utilising the AOA’s industry-owned communications platform and network of national and international industry experts, the project promotes world’s-best practice and the results of R&D in grove management and olive oil production to the Australian olive industry.
Project outputs The outputs are broad in both content and dissemination format, aiming to reach and inform as much of the industry as possible, and include: events including best practice workshops and field days, held across all producing states and supported by information on the industry OliveBiz website; recordings of and/or from these events for ongoing reference; other video content covering best practice management topics; webinars covering topical issues and practices; related fact sheets and reference material; expert updates of existing industry
RIRDC resources;
monthly Grove Innovation e-newsletters, emailed to levy payers and also available on the
OliveBiz website; quarterly R&D Insights lift-outs, published in the Australian & New
Zealand Olivegrower & Processor industry journal and also available on the OliveBiz website. AOA CEO Michael Southan said the extension provides the opportunity to complete several activities curtailed by COVID restrictions over the past 18 months, and to ensure the flow of information on new R&D and projects currently underway. “The communications and extension project has been an incredible success across all aspects,” he said.
“Grower feedback throughout the project period is that the information provided has been relevant, practical and highly useful. In particular, the project has provided invaluable solutions to issues being experienced in their groves and businesses, along with new techniques and methodologies to improve their management practices. All of that is translating into a continuing increase in product quality and viability across Australian olive businesses. “We now hope to secure a further three to five-year extension of the project so we can continue to drive increased industry knowledge, best practice management and capability.”
Access resources online The communications and extension program has generated a wealth of resources over the past three years, all of which are available to access, view and/or download 24/7 from the OliveBiz website.
Go to www.olivebiz.com.au and you’ll find them in the various dropdown tabs – Publications, Projects/Comms Project, R&D Reports and R&D Insights. Research recap
PROJECT NAME: Australian olive industry communications and extension program (OL18000)
PROJECT AIM: Continuing to build greater skills, capacity and knowledge in the Australian olive industry by promotion and dissemination of world-best practice and the results of R&D in grove management and olive oil production PROJECT PARTNER: Australian Olive Association FUNDING: Hort Innovation Olive Fund
CURRENT PROJECT END: June 2022
OWI puts cooking with EVOO on the front burner
There’s no stopping the team from the Olive Wellness Institute on their mission to educate health and food service professionals on the health benefits and culinary versatility of EVOO and olive products. In the three months since we last updated on their work there’s been a bunch of new activities undertaken, and new resources produced. Let’s take a look at what they’ve been up to.
Food service webinar It was virtual ‘standing room only’ on 26 October when 270 chefs and food service professionals joined the OWI for a webinar run by chef Emma Rosen and Cobram Estate Olives Joint CEO Leandro Ravetti.
The free event, Extra Virgin Olive Oil: Can I cook with that?, was presented in conjunction with Nutrition Australia with support from the Australian Culinary Federation. It looked at both culinary and technical aspects, covering how EVOO is made and the science behind cooking with EVOO, along with the health benefits of consuming EVOO. It then got practical with a live demonstration by Emma of three EVOO-based recipes – focaccia, crispy skinned salmon and tomato salad - providing the opportunity to both showcase EVOOs versatility as an ingredient and dispel the myth about cooking with EVOO at high temperatures. The OWI’s Sarah Haworth said the session was a huge success, particularly in terms of increasing the chefs’ technical knowledge about EVOO. “We surveyed the participants at the start and end of the session, asking them to rank their knowledge on each topic from poor, fair or good to excellent,” she said. “There was an increase of 50% in ‘knowledge of processing and production of EVOO’ and an increase of 48% in ‘knowledge of smoke point and stability of EVOO’. “That’s a great result, and means that at least 135 chefs and food service professionals now have a better understanding of the benefits of using EVOO in their dishes. If each of them works in a kitchen with a group of other professionals, that’s a substantial wave of influence for a change to EVOO,” she said.
Blog posts and recipes Recent months have also seen new blog posts on the OWI website, written by nutritionist and TV chef Zoe Bingley-Pullin. A passionate advocate for proactive health through functional foods, Zoe’s blogs provide practical information about the active health components of EVOO. Her first two blogs, The Misconceptions Around Cooking with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and Enhancing your diet with Extra Virgin Olive Oil, also offer more mythbusting about EVOO and heat, and promote the use of fresh, local EVOO. Each also has accompanying recipes, giving readers a delicious introduction to the benefits of swapping to EVOO for cooking.
HEIA National Conference In late September the OWI also virtually attended the Home Economics Institute of Australia (HEIA) National Conference, ‘meeting’ delegates in the virtual trade hall to share the benefits of cooking with EVOO. “It was a great opportunity to reach a large cohort of professionals on the front line of food preparation education, in the context of community wellbeing,” Haworth said. “We were also able to provide them with resources on the health benefits of cooking with EVOO and introduce them to our website for a wider range of resources.”
Access resources The recipes demonstrated during the October webinar and referenced in the new blogs are available on the Olive Wellness Institute website - www.olivewellnessinstitute.org - along with a wealth of additional resources. Use and share them to keep spreading the word about the myriad benefits of cooking with healthy, Australian EVOO!
Olive Fund Annual Report 2020/21 released
As a levy payer, the Hort Innovation Olive Fund is your R&D fund, invested along with Australian Government contributions into initiatives to help growers be as productive and profitable as possible. It’s important that all stakeholders know what their levy dollars are being used for – and just as importantly, what they’re achieving for the industry. To that end, Hort Innovation produces annual reports for each of the 37 industries it handles levies for: the latest were released in late October, covering the 2020/21 financial year. The reports provide key project information from the year, including grower case studies of how levy investments have made an impact on the ground.
Report overview Not everyone has time to read the fine print, so here’s an overview of the Olive Fund Annual Report 2020/21.
Fund highlights Among the major projects delivered during the 2020/21 year were:
the industry Communications and
Extension Program, delivering
Grove Innovation newsletters, editions of R&D Insights, best practice workshops and more; educational resources via the
Olive Wellness Institute, providing evidence-based health information about olive products to health professionals, and the olive industry; preparation support for pest incursions, including emergency minor use permits and longerterm investments to bolster the horticulture sector’s response; a range of pest and biosecurity investments to ensure the olive industry is equipped to manage present and future threats; investments in the Hort Frontiers strategic partnership initiative to address longer-term and complex
issues and opportunities critical to the future of Australian horticulture* projects supported by grants secured by Hort Innovation, ranging from cross-sector
Rural R&D for Profit initiatives to horticulture-specific work to aid in access to crop protection products.* *These initiatives were delivered outside of the Hort Innovation Olive Fund and, in most instances, did not involve the industry levy.
Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) alignment Investments specific to the Olive Fund are guided by the olive Strategic Investment Plan (SIP). The SIP features priority outcome areas that have been identified and agreed upon by the industry, and Hort Innovation works to invest in R&D initiatives that are aligned to these. Project expenditure in the Olive Fund during 2020/21 was aligned to the SIP, with each project allocated to a SIP outcome based on its primary objective: Outcome 1: Supply - improved on-farm productivity, sustainability and product quality saw investment of $154,320 on seven projects, including:
An integrated pest and disease management extension program for the olive industry (OL17001) Extending OliveCare® to foster excellence in production of
Australian olives (OL17006) Olive industry minor use program (OL16000)
International Olive Council
Committee (OL15002)
Improving preparedness of the
Australian horticultural sector to
Olive Fund snapshot 2020/21
$392,322
invested in R&D
12
active R&D investments
$130,809
in levies collected
the threat potentially posed by
Xylella fastidiosa (MT17006) Generation of data for pesticide applications in horticulture crops 2019/20 (MT18018)
Strategic Agrichemical Review
Process (SARP) Updates (MT19008)
Outcome 2: Demand - Increased demand for Australian olive products within Australia and in key overseas markets saw investment of $124,000 on two projects: Horticulture trade dataMaking sure that levy (MT19005) Educating health professionals about Australian olive products (OL19001) Outcome 3: Capacity - Greater investment decisions align skills, capacity and knowledge in the industry saw investment of $110,00 in one project: with industry priorities Australian olive industry communications and extension program (OL18000) Current Olive Fund investment activity
Currently underway: 2+ R&D investments
Ready to use:
Levy collected in 2020/21: 10+ resources and reports
$130,809
Invested in R&D in 2020/21: $392,322 Potential impact of industry SIP: $25 million
Investments
Here’s what your fund invested in over the year
Outcome 3: Capacity $110,000
Enabler $4,944
Other content The report also includes the 2020/21 Financial operating statement, a list of new and current chemical minor use permits for olives, and a case study focusing on the approach, use and impact of The Australian Olive Industry Code of Practice (OliveCare®) program. Future investment The report lists the four productivity and profitability outcome areas identified in the olive SIP for future investment as: industry supply, productivity and sustainability demand creation extension and capacity business insights. The focus for the next five years will be detailed in the olive Strategic Investment Plan 2022/2026, and the olive Annual Investment Plan (AIP) 2021/22 will detail how levy funds will be spent over the 12-month period.
Both documents are currently being finalised. We’ll let you know when they’re released, and they’ll be available to view on the Olive Fund Management page. Want more detail, or resources? The full Olive Fund Annual Report for 2020/21 is available to download from the Hort Innovation website, along with the previous annual reports for the 2017/18, 2018/19 and 2019/20 financial years. Go to www. horticulture.com.au and search for The olive Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) was created in 2021 to reflect current priorities for the olive industry. This involved extensive consultation with olive growers and industry stakeholders, including the Australian Olive Association. The SIP is the roadmap that helps guide Hort Innovation’s oversight and management of individual levy industry investment programs. The olive SIP lays the foundation for decision making in levy investments and represents the balanced interest of the particular industry from which the levy is collected. The most important function of the SIP is to make sure that levy investment decisions align with industry priorities. The olive SIP identifies four outcome areas that will contribute to the productivity and profitability of the olive sector. They are: Industry supply, productivity and sustainability Fund management What will be the Olive Fund’s focus over the next five years? Making sure that levy investment decisions align with industry priorities ‘Fund Annual Reports’. Olive Fund Annual Investment Plan 2021/22 And if you want to know more about the Olive Fund, there’s an overview of how it works and how it’s managed in the Growers section of the Hort Innovation website: navigate to the Olive Fund page and you’ll find the Fund Management dropdown in the The olive Annual Investment Plan (AIP) 2021/22 will detail how levy funds will be spent top menu. over the 12-month period. Investment decisions will be guided by the industry SIP You can also access research reports, and prioritised based on potential industry impact, as well as availability of levy funds. publications, fact sheets and more relating to Olive Fund R&D activity The AIP is developed by Hort Innovation, and is informed by the SIP and industry from the Olive Fund page: just look consultation, including collaboration with the Australian Olive Association. The AIP is for the Research reports and more then discussed with the industry SIAP for feedback and prioritisation. All investments dropdown. will need to link to the industry’s SIP by addressing a minimum of one KPI against a strategy under one of the
The olive Strategic Investment Plan (SIP) was created in 2021 to reflect current priorities for the olive industry. This involved extensive consultation with olive growers and industry stakeholders, including the Australian Olive Association. The SIP is the roadmap that helps guide Hort Innovation’s oversight and management of individual levy industry investment programs. The olive SIP lays the foundation for decision making in levy investments and represents the balanced interest of the particular industry from which the levy is collected. The most important function of the SIP is to make sure that levy investment decisions align with industry priorities. The olive SIP identifies four outcome areas that will contribute to the productivity and profitability of the olive sector. They are: • Industry supply, productivity and sustainability •
• • Demand creation Extension and capability Business insights.
Olive Strategic Investment Plan 2022-2026 Olive Fund Annual Investment Plan 2021/22
Investments that are specific to the Hort Innovation Olive Fund are guided by the olive Strategic Investment Plan (SIP). The SIP features priority outcome areas that have been identified and agreed upon by the industry, and Hort Innovation works to invest in R&D initiatives that are aligned to these. In the above chart, you can see how project expenditure in the Olive Fund during 2020/21 was aligned to the SIP. Each project has been allocated to a SIP outcome based on its primary objective. Expenditure on projects classified as ‘enabler’ support the broader delivery of the industry’s strategic investment plan, such as impact assessments. Annual Report 2020/21 3
Outcome 2: Demand $124,044 Outcome 1: Supply $154,320
