Formentera olive oil mill spares 40 growers Ibiza trip

Formentera, in the Balearic Islands, now has a shared olive oil mill: 40 growers can process their olives without taking them to Ibiza. Its first production run began on 30 September and is due to end on 15 October. Balearic agriculture minister Joan Simonet visited the Cooperativa del Campo de Formentera mill on Wednesday, 7 October.

No more trip to Ibiza for milling

Until now, growers had to take their harvested olives to Ibiza to be milled. The journey cost time and money, and the olives lost freshness before processing. The Balearic agriculture department says this is the first shared mill of its kind available to Formentera growers.

Seven of the 40 growers plan to sell their oil. The others are small producers making it mainly for their own use. Formentera has had small family mills before, but this facility lets growers use one mill together.

Nearly 18,000 kilos processed

The mill has processed nearly 18,000 kilos of olives so far. The cooperative expects that figure to reach around 40,000 kilos by 15 October. About 80,000 kilos of olives were harvested on Formentera last year.

The equipment is still being adjusted and tested. The cooperative says it is too early to judge how much oil the olives will yield or what the oil will be like.

Topics: Agriculture

Source: Europa Press / Mallorca.com