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I'm an olive producer in Portugal. I suspect the main reason behind the need for harvesting at night is that the demand exceeds the supply for super high densi
by chicob 7y ago
I'm an olive producer in Portugal.
I suspect the main reason behind the need for harvesting at night is that the demand exceeds the supply for super high density harvesting service, and contractors harvest day and night in order to face the demand.
As soon as there are enough providers, working extra hours will become less interesting and this kind of practice will go away. This kind of harvesting is a lot quicker than previous practices, so harvesting during the day will be more than enough.
Harvesting is done usually in the winter (ranging from November to January) so only non-migratory birds are afected, and even then only those nesting in super high density orchards.
The harvesters are quite expensive, and usually only larger producers own them. This kind of investment is tricky, because for the most part of the year there is nothing to harvest (although there are some other crops where the harvesters are being tried in order to recover the investment more quickly).
Of course no farmer wants to needlessly kill harmless birds, but I will wait for more data, since there has been some hype regarding super high density orchards in the past months, usually portraying them as something horrible and bad to the environment.
By the way, birds to not get into the oil presses, because olives pass through a mesh in order to remove branches and leaves. Then they're washed, so there is no risk of contamination with dead birds.
I also suspect the decline of bird populations in the south has something to do with the big fires of past years, that forced northern predatory birds to come searching for food at lower latitudes. I have never seen so many eagles like this year.
Or the other side, the Eurasian magpie populations seem to be doing fine, as well as the once endangered storks.
Edit to add: the research cited in the article is not research but an information notice by the Environment Council of the government of Andalucia.
- teh_klev 7y ago> I suspect the main reason behind the need for harvesting at night is that the demand exceeds the supply The third paragraph of the article suggests otherwise: The trees are stripped at night because cool temperatures help preserve the olives' aromatic compounds. > so only non-migratory birds are afected[sic] Again, the article begs to differ, these are migratory birds: Huge numbers of birds from central and northern Europe winter in the Mediterranean
- chicob 7y agoThe trees are stripped at night because cool temperatures help preserve the olives' aromatic compounds. I don't think that is why they do it. First of all, producers are paid according to the titratable acidity of the oil (and classified as extra virgin, virgin, or lampante) and if paid by the tonne of olives delivered, this is adjusted to the oil-to-mass ratio (roughly 20% w/w). These values are determined in laboratory, from samples collected at delivery, and whose results come only at a later time. There is no measure for aroma. Many times, batches from different producers are mixed before pressing, so there's no point in trying to preserve whatever aromas there might be. Unless we're talking about producers with their own pressers, producing their own label, trying to preserve aroma is kind of pointless, and subjective at best. But there is something else: the oil-to-mass ratio improves during dryer weeks, so transportation is cheaper and extraction is better paid. So maybe there is more pressure for a quick harvest in conditions where the oil content reaches 22%, but again I see no point in nightly harvest. Huge numbers of birds from central and northern Europe winter in the Mediterranean But they are not being affected, that is, of all the 17 species mentioned in the cited notice, only one is listed as Near Threatened (the redwing, T. iliacus). Vulnerable or endangered species are not being affected as far as I know, and sedentary/endemic species would be in greater danger. According to the Portuguese Natural Preservation Institute (ICNF) the numbers involved are not statistically relevant for justifying the prohibition of nightly harvests.
- esilver 7y ago> I'm an olive producer in Portugal. I love this community.
- marak830 7y agoOt: it's amazing to be able to speak to so many different backgrounds isn't it? I don't know about the rest of you buy I'm always of two mjnds when recommending hn. I don't want to lose what we have.