Small-Scale Success With Olives In Gauteng

Olive farming in South Africa tends to be concentrated in a few regions in the Western Cape and Northern Cape where conditions are ideal for this fruit. But in the early 2000s, Gauteng-based Hettie du Toit and her late husband, Frans, frustrated with the ongoing theft of their vegetables, decided to give olives a go on their plot. Pieter Dempsey reports

- Pieter Dempsey

What started out as a small trial with just 10 olive trees almost 20 years ago has grown into a productive olive business for Hettie du Toit. She and her husband, Frans, who died in 2009, first decided to experiment with olives on their 26ha plot in Randfontein, Gauteng, as their vegetable farming operation was plagued by ongoing theft.

One of the main reasons they chose olives in a region not usually associated with this crop was that olives need to be processed before consumption; the fruit hanging on the tree is effectively inedible and therefore offers little temptation to potential thieves.

In 2004, the couple started with 10 olive trees to see if these would cope with the climate. Once they were satisfied that the trees had become well established, they ordered 5 000 more and launched their olive oil and table olive business, Orion Olives. Today, the orchard contains approximately 10 000 olive trees of different varieties.

Extra-virgin olive oil is produced from Frantoio, Coratina, Favalosa (FS17) and Leccino olives, and table olive varieties include Kalamata, Mission, Manzanilla and Beroni.

TRIAL AND ERROR

In the beginning, the trees were planted at a spacing of 3m x 5m. This turned out to be too dense, and subsequent trees were planted at a spacing of 6m x 5m.

Considerable research went into choosing the most suitable cultivars for the area, says Du Toit.

“I didn’t have a background in agriculture and had to learn as I went along. I received valuable advice from the nursery where I bought the trees.”

One of the best cultivars has been Favalosa.