MEET MEETTHE THEMANUFACTURER MANUFACTURER
Cobram Estate competes with entire countries when it comes to olive oil production Cobram Estate is producing millions of litres of olive oil every harvest and within two decades of its foundation produces 70 per cent of Australia’s olive oil. Adam McCleery talks to CEO Leandro Ravetti about the company’s journey so far.
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n just 23 years Cobram Estate has become one of the largest producers of olive oil in the world after its most recent harvest netted the company 16 million litres of product. Cobram Estate’s CEO and chief oil maker, Leandro Ravetti, said that the growth of the company has exceeded his wildest expectations after he came on board in the early 2000s. “The company was initially founded by two friends, Rob McGavin and Paul Riordan, in 1998, after noticing a growing trend
around the consumption of olive oil,” said Ravetti. At the time, consumption of olive oil in Australia was about 1 litre per capita and both men knew there was room for large market growth. Both are still active in the business with McGavin acting as chairman and the largest shareholder, while Riordan is a company director and the second largest shareholder. Once the company was launched a few initial hurdles had to be overcome. “Particularly that there were not enough good trees in Australia or
Cobram Estate are Australia’s largest producer of olive oil and its output matches some countries. 16 Food&Beverage Industry News | November 2021 | www.foodmag.com.au
the right amount of knowledge,” said Ravetti. “Several things had to happen, and they did. Things like importing trees and setting up nurseries, and before long the first trees were planted in 1999.” To fund the company during its infancy, McGavin and Riordan raised investment capital from friends and family for a series of joint ventures. Within three years the pair had developed 500 hectares of olive groves. “That is around the time I came into the picture,” said Ravetti.
“I used to work as an olive and olive oil researcher back in Argentina and that is how we met. Then I moved to Australia to help the company out on the technical side of the business.” It was 2001 and the same year the company harvested its first small olive crop. “The company grew well from that point because it taught us about the right things to do from a management point of view,” said Ravetti. “After that we started to produce a significant amount of olive oil in Australia.
