GROVE GROWTH

$25m INVESTMENT BUILDS BIGGEST MILL

COBRAM Estate’s Boort olive processing mill be will be largest in the Southern Hemisphere when harvest starts in April.

The listed company is investing $25 million and installing new machinery from Italy as its Boundary Bend Boort grove footprint grows to more than 3500 hectares.

Joint chief executive officer Leandro Ravetti: “At Boort over the past five or six years we have been investing quite heavily in new plantings and replacing of old groves.

“With better performance in growing, this year we come (for investment) to production to have a milling capacity sufficient to cope with the increase in yield,” he said.

Full vertical integration production capacity at Boort is being increased from 30 tonnes of fruit an hour to 80 tonnes.

“This will be the largest mill in the Southern Hemisphere and one of the largest in the world,” said Mr Ravetti. “It’s big .... a

By CHRIS EARL

significant investment that will see the mill and groves fully expanded in the next few years for production.”

New processing equipment for the mill will be more energy efficient. Mr Ravetti said that would contribute to a lower carbon footprint for each litre produced.

Another 415 hectares is being planted with olive trees over the next six weeks and continues a planting program started six years ago.

“The area has a great climate for growing olives. The yield and quality from the farm is clear proof and has given us confidence to keep investing in the farm and the mill,” he said.

“It’s quite exciting and it’s a great sign of a lot of oil to come.”

Olive oil consumption in Australia has more than doubled in the past 20 years to an average of two litres a person.

Mr Ravetti said that more than 40 per cent of extra virgin oil was now produced in Australia and “there’s still scope to grow”.

“We have been barely keeping up with demand and the additional growing and production capacity will be important,” he said. “There’s also potential for export growth into the US and Asia.”

Mr Ravetti said the $25 million investment was the “cherry on the cake” that capitalised on the learning curve of the company.

“We’re not only producing a healthy and delicious product but a sustainable product,” he said.

General manager horticulture

Ruth Sutherland said despite a cold and wet spring that had de- layed flowering on trees, recent conditions had created good growing conditions ahead of the April harvest.

Cobram Estate listed on the Australian Stock Exchange in August 2021. The company shares opened trading at $1.36 yesterday.

DETENTION deserved? We think Bradley of Boort would have fallen foul of the headmaster for being late ... with his latest sign. And writing out 100 times the correct spelling of geometry could have been meted out in an old-fashioned classroom without air-conditioning and the outdoor playing area covered in coarse gravel. However, we think Bradley would have earned a reprieve for giving us the theme and flow of OTF this week.

WE’LL start with maths. As recorded last week, The Oracle of Maryborough High School fame was recruiting players for his twilight bowls outing at Bridgewater. Accepting the call up much earlier than anticipated, OTF enjoyed the pre-game hamburger and surveyed the Janey-arranged raffle prize table. In the main event, let the history books records, OTF contributed three shots in first game win, The Oracle zip.

NEXT on the timetable is home economics. The Good Doctor and his equally good wife took their place too in the teams rolling the Henselite down what was rated a very fast twilight green. They did very well in post-match activitiesclaimed first prize in the raffle of a meat pack and followed up with second prize of two bottles of fine local beverages of the grape variety. While that had main course covered, the Good Doc bombed when it came to dessert - he missed out on third prize that was a dozen of the finest local eggs. No sponges being whipped up to finish lunch!

BACK in class, it’s time for geography. The terrible news last week of tragic earthquakes had one octogenarian confused. He spoke about the bad news coming out of Tokyo. The dear old ABC had confused chap with newsreaders’ pronunciation of the country still to most of us known as Turkey. Seems Auntie has decided, after a consultation period and appropriate committee meetings, to tell us that Turkey is now Türkiye (TUR-kee-ah) after the country decided, maybe, to disassociate itself from the big cooked bird on tables at American Thanksgiving. Turkey began a push for the rest of the world to adopt the native land spelling and pronunciation in 2021. Does this now mean Rome becomes Roma (not tomatoes - mind you, they would go well with turkey).

TO FINISH the school day, let’s look at English with a nice little segue from the geography lesson. Some foreign place names are commonly Anglicised in English. Examples include the Danish city København (Copenhagen), the Russian city Moskva (Moscow), the Swedish city Göteborg (Gothenburg), the Dutch city Den Haag (The Hague), the Spanish city of Sevilla (Seville), the Egyptian city of Al-Q hira (Cairo), and the Italian city of Firenze (Florence).

AFTER all those classes, Bradley must surely be off to complete those 100 lines while The

WORK has started on the delayed $1.58 million Pyramid Hill streetscape revitalisation project. Crews have spent the last fortnight preparing Kelly Park and Lions Park for design works. Originally slated for completion last year, Loddon Shire in May appointed Echuca-based construction firm Capeng Pty Ltd to deliver the project with works starting in July. However, it was further delayed by the October flood emergency and sub-contractor availability. When completed, a pedestrian crossing will link the two parks.

Snags out door in quick time

CHAMPION sausage makers Jye and Kristy Arnold have battled to keep up with demand for the prize-winning snags.

No 1 on shoppers’ lists last week was the Italian Casalinga variety that took out the National Sausage Award.

Jye made up a larger quantity in anticipation of customer demand. But he couldn’t keep up ... more than 80 dozen (960) sausages were sold at the Boort butchers in four days last week.

Jye said the award had encouraged customers to stock up on what was now the nation’s favourite sausage. The national award-winning short cut bacon was also popular last week.

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