HomeVirtual visit to a mill of organic olive oil
According to the autonomous government of Andalusia (Junta de Andalucia), this region has almost 3.707 million acres of olive orchards and produces around one million tons of olive oil every year; these data correspond to the 25% of the global, 50% of the European and more than 80% of the Spanish production. From these results, an increasing part is devoted to organic farming.
This enclosure contains the outlet hoppers that carry clean olives (without branches and leaves) to the machines which take the bones out of the fruit in order to obtain only flesh and pulp.
Más sobre el aceite de oliva ecológico
The olives are cold pressed inside this plant using continuous systems. The paste then goes through centrifuges which will separate the oil from the water without producing OMWs (olive oil mill waste waters). This is the way we produce extra virgin organic olive oil.
The final parts of our process are our modern bottling and labelling plants, from where our bottles of extra virgin organic olive oil start their way to the final consumers.
There were 91 organic olive mills in Andalusia in 2001. There were, as well, strict regulations in order to control the production of extra virgin organic olive oil. Of the total fields devoted to the cultivation of organic olive orchards, Andalusian farms the 40% of the total area.
Organic olive oil is stored in huge stainless steel tanks under controlled atmosphere and temperature. The decanting of the oil is also produced inside these tanks; this process takes around 40 days (the oil is left to rest at a temperature of about 64.4 degrees Fahrenheit) in order to carry out the sediment of the particles in suspension that the oil may contain.
Modern olive mills are provided with laboratories where specialists analyze and control the quality of extra virgin olive oil.
Taste Tests Rooms: Reputed professional olive oil testers carry out taste tests inside these rooms in order to classify and categorize extra virgin olive oil for its subsequent commercialization.
You can find several farming areas on plains (as these ones in Antequera) or other cultivations on steep hills, which make automation so difficult. According to the data of mid 2005 provided by the CAAE (Andalusian Committee for Organic Farming and Livestock), the area devoted to organic olive orchards cultivation in Andalusia was 98,030 acres.