TRANSFORMATION

"THE YIELD"

To obtain a liter of extra virgin olive oil, you need 4 to 7 kilos of olives. The percentage of oil obtained for each quintal is commonly called "yield". This yield can therefore, with exceptions in one direction or the other, go from 14% to 25%.

 

Producers have more or less fixed costs on the cultivation, harvesting and processing of olives. Therefore having a high yield guarantees them a greater profit on the sale of the final product.

 

The difference in yield depends on many factors, of which I will briefly indicate the main ones:

 

- METHOD OF EXTRACTION. A cold extraction involves a lower yield, compared to an oil obtained from the extraction of a paste (this is the term used to indicate what is obtained from the pressing process) heated and / or contaminated with additives that increase the extraction of liquids . You probably already know that heating pasta involves the loss of many polyphenols and, in general, a lowering of the quality of the final product. The damage of the additives then ... oh well.

 

- RIPENING OF OLIVES. The beginning of veraison (i.e. when the green olives start to turn black) marks the period in which it is possible to start harvesting the olives. The less mature they are, the lower the acidity will be (usually, because in reality it is not an exact determinant). Waiting for the olives to ripen completely allows you to obtain a higher yield and a more "delicate" oil. Unfortunately, the quality of the oil will suffer. Better to avoid.

 

- TIME BETWEEN HARVEST AND MILLING. Making the olives "rest" for a few tens of hours, or days, causes them to lose a little water, heat up slightly (due to the fermentation processes) and ripen a little longer. Unfortunately, starting from the moment in which the drupe is detached from the tree, its process of decay begins. Obviously, within 12 or 24 hours the molds that start to form are almost irrelevant on quality and flavor. Allowing more time to pass, slightly increases the yield. And molds.

 

There would be other points to list, but this post would become even more boring.

Suffice it to say that MY OIL is obtained from OLIVES AT THE BEGINNING OF MATURATION, MOLITO IN COLD within A FEW HOURS of harvesting (yesterday I milled after 2 hours. Today after 3. Tomorrow who knows!).

The yield is low (around 16% this year), as is my profit margin.

 

Fortunately for you, I'm not stingy. You, in return, see that you are not stingy when I ask you to pay me the oil 10 euros per liter (of course, then I'll give you the discount, but ... boh) and don't be naive when you think you have found the deal because someone else is selling it to you at a bargain price.