UC Davis presses the way for California's olives

With three years of experience making olive oil from the nearly 2,000 olive trees on the University of California, Davis campus, it became clear that the next step was to find ways to improve California’s olive industry. According to Dan Flynn, executive director of the UC Davis Olive Center, “[A] strong growth in California olive oil production and a desire to innovate among table oil producers indicated that the university should step up its research efforts in this field.”
    The research and development center opened in January of 2008 under the umbrella of the university’s Robert Mondavi Institute for Wine and Food Science (RMI), which will house the campus’ Department of Viticulture and Enology (grape-growing and winemaking) and Food Science and Technology. RMI is scheduled to celebrate its grand opening in October 2008.
    The center will address challenges faced by California olive growers and oil producers, including controlling the olive fruit fly, tapping the potential value of olive mill waste, establishing olive oil grade standards, reducing production cost, and increasing consumer awareness of quality.
    “California producers make very high quality olive oil,” says Flynn, “but they face higher production costs than competitive countries. The lack of grading standards makes it challenging for consumers to know that California olive oil is of such premium quality and worth a little extra.”
    Currently, the U.S. is the fourth largest consumer of olive oil in the world, behind Italy, Spain and Greece respectively. Demand for California olive oil is expected to increase from 500,000 gallons per year to 2.5 million gallons per year within the next five years. Flynn attributes this growing demand simply to the fact that “California olive oil tastes good and is good for you.”

Do you like what you read? Subscribe to Solano Magazine »