OROVILLE — For much of the last century, California olive farming has focused on the pitted black table variety that children -- and some adults -- like to eat off their fingertips. It's been a tiny niche in the global olive industry.
But now, growers using farming techniques typically found in a vineyard believe they can turn the Golden State into an olive oil force -- one that can compete profitably with the big European producers that dominate the U.S. market. High-density plantings, mechanized harvesting and investment in olive mills are allowing California's olive oil industry to take on the rest of the world, where hand picking and traditional, widely spaced orchards are the rule.
California farmers this year will plant about 2,000 acres of olive trees for oil production, expanding the amount of land devoted to the crop by about 30%, said Paul Vossen, an olive specialist at the University of California Extension in Sonoma.
Vossen projects that growers will continue to add that many acres a year through at least 2009. That would put the state's olive oil industry, in production terms, a par with France's industry.
The growers are expanding at a propitious time, said Darrell Corti, an olive oil expert at Corti Brothers gourmet supermarket in Sacramento.
A drought and other problems have cut production across much of Italy and Spain, driving up the price of imported oil. At the same time, European Union officials are looking at phasing out subsidies for the industry, which amount to about 35 cents for every 16.9-ounce bottle sold in the United States.
And the U.S. Department of Agriculture is expected to revise its olive oil standard, instituting a stricter definition of what constitutes "extra virgin"-grade olive oil. That's likely to stop a practice by some European and other importers of blending different grades and types of oils but still labeling the product "extra virgin" when it is sold in the U.S., Vossen said. Such a move would drive up the price of higher-grade oils and make California production more competitive, he said.
A prime example of the state's productivity is California Olive Ranch in Oroville. Anyone driving by the ranch could easily mistake it for yet another of California's ubiquitous vineyards. Rows of plants, hundreds deep across 483 acres, parallel the roadway. Each of the 320,000 trees is meticulously spaced 5 feet apart, supported by a trellis system similar to what a visitor would see in Napa Valley. This allows the ranch to pack 675 trees in the same space occupied by 120 in a traditional European olive farm.
