BIO PLANÈTE Olive Oils - informationen on harvesting technology

13. July 2021

Not to forget, the reports document the deaths of songbirds when harvesting olives that are sucked in by highend automated harvesters during the night harvest.

The report describes harvesters that are used in high-intensity olive groves. Due to their high level of automation, these can also operate at night. However, this is only possible on flat terrain and only if the olive trees are cultivated in dense hedges, i.e. highly intensified cultivation.

The use of such technology is not profitable in all growing regions. In Tunisia, for example, the harvest is done entirely by hand. Our suppliers in Europe, on the other hand, mainly use harvesting technology such as vibration bars and vibration machines. With these harvesting methods, the olives fall onto a net or a collector screen. Harvest workers drag the nets to the loading points, from where the olives are transported.

Night harvesting would make the work very difficult due to the limited visibility. Our sup-pliers have confirmed to us that they only harvest the olives by daylight and use vibration technology and harvest workers.

We are in close contact with our suppliers and regularly make and check the cultivation and harvesting methods used by our farmers. The olive groves there have developed over decades. Here, too, the harvest takes place using vibration technology. The mountainside olive groves with their large olive trees on partly stony ground are not passable with harvesters.

We can therefore exclude the death of song-birds by night because of harvesters operating during the production of our BIO PLANÈTE olive oils.