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The company Oil'iv Green is currently encouraging winegrowers in Bordeaux to uproot their vines and plant olive trees in their place. Founder Yannick Masmondet is himself a former winemaker and, after working in Morocco for a few years, has now specialised in olive oil. He wants to build an oil mill in Sauveterre-de-Guyenne and guarantee the farmers fixed prices per litre for the olive oil for the next 15 years.
France, like Italy, produces only a small part of the olive oil consumed each year. "It's a great opportunity for all farmers in difficulty," Yannick Masmondet tells the online magazine Vitisphere. The entrepreneur promises to accompany his customers from soil analysis to marketing. Three years after planting and without taking into account any subsidies, he guarantees the winegrowers a net margin of 7,000 to 8,000 euros per hectare.
Winemaker Yorick Lavaud from Domaine Les Carmels in Langoiran (Gironde) has already filled out the forms for the grubbing-up subsidies. He will replace three of his ten hectares of vines with olive trees. This would allow him to produce around 4,500 litres of oil in the future. "I will plant the olives on the clayey slopes of Cadillac, which are not suitable for other crops. The clearing premiums will help me recoup the cost of planting. That's about 25,000 euros per hectare over five years," explains Lavaud.
"Oil'iv Green has established partnerships with around 30 agricultural service providers throughout the South, which save the winegrowers from having to make large investments," says Yannick Masmondet. When a young farmer joins Oil'iv Green, he may well start without any equipment. According to Masmondet, large cooperative wineries in the region are also considering joining the oil mill. From the Gironde to the Italian border, Oil'iv Green plans to plant 10,000 hectares of olive trees in the coming years.
(ru / source: Vitisphere)