Alice olive harvester winners announced!

The winners of this years subscription competition, run in conjunction with the Australian and New Zealand Olivegrower & Processor magazine, have been announced. The Australian winner is Campbell Mercer of Mt Egerton in Victoria. Con Atsalis personally delivered the Alice electromechanical olive harvester to Mr Mercer who was incredibly pleased with his good fortune.

Campbell Mercer's winning entry:
The biggest challenge facing today's olive grower is to thread the needle of commercial viability. The grower must nurture their olives in an ecologically sustainable manner against a backdrop of stretching economic conditions, disinterested political climate and testing environmental conditions; before efficiently harvesting and processing them in a time-critical and economic operation. Finally the grower needs to market the resulting olives/oil into a relatively uninformed and typically price driven marketplace against heavily subsidised and established international competitors while achieving a return which makes the risk, capital resources, significant effort and personal commitment, worthwhile.

The successful New Zealand entrant is Charmaine Maitland of Man O' War Olive Groves on Waiheke Island. The Alice harvester was donated by the New Zealand Campagnola distributors: Allendale Garden Products, who are now stocking near the entire range of quality, Campagnola products.

Charmaine Maitland is the Horticultural manager at Man O' War Olive Groves and had this to say about her new harvester:
We think the new Alice harvester is great, it is very simple to use and very effective at picking our larger trees. In years to come it is going to be a great tool for us to have. We have around 50 mature trees and around 750 younger trees so it is going to be very handy and we will definitely purchase another one or two once our trees are in full production. It is very light weight and effective. Thanks so much to your company Allendale Garden Products and Olivegrower & Processor.

Charmaine Maitland's winning entry:
I think the biggest challenge facing today's olivegrower is educating Australians and New Zealanders on the great benefits of local extra virgin olive oil. The average consumption per person in New Zealand of EVOO is about 200ml per year, whereas Greeks consume 25L per person per year! The many health benefits of extra virgin olive oil are unknown in many households. The olive associations need to make a combined effort to educate the general public.

More information on the Alice harvester can be found here.
You will find the entire story on pages 8 & 9 of the May/June Olivegrower & Processor.