Portuguese olive oil

Harvesting of olives

Olive groves are found in various parts of Portugal and are scattered over an area of about 5,000 square km and its cultivation is facilitated by the Mediterranean type climates of these regions.

Olive oil has emerged as a premier cash crop in Portugal and the process of cultivation is very significant for supreme quality production. As a part of the cultivating process, an important aspect is the mode of harvesting. In fact it is very significant to make sure that the olives are harvested at the correct time without any delay as in case of any postponement, the acid level in the extracted oil will increase resulting in the production of inferior quality oils. However, the olive grower needs to be very alert as olives that are picked too early may not possess any oil at all. Upon attaining light green color, one can be sure that the olive contains oil and the amount of oil it contains increases as the color of the fruit darkens. But along with it the acidity level also increases which again hampers quality. There can be various means by which olives can be harvested and the method to be implemented depends upon the climatic factors, type of olives cultivated and the season for harvesting also differs from country to country. Hand picking is by far the best and oft used of the harvesting methods even though it is an exhaustive process. However in regions recording high scale productions, hand picking is not always a wise option. Some of the other harvesting methods used in olive cultivation are accumulating the olives once they themselves fall from the trees to the ground, using large poles to beat the trees and release the olives, using other devices to loosen the olives and also certain mechanical processes like machine harvesting are also employed fro olive production in Portugal.