A Beautiful Rural Landscape | Australian Award Winning Extra Virgin Olive Oil | Oliv.IQ

Our Comprehensive Approach to Sustainability to Food and More

The food we eat and how we produce it will determine the health of people and the planet, and it is becoming clear that major changes must be made to avoid both reduced life expectancy and continued environmental degradation. Increasingly, a number of scientific studies present an integrated framework providing quantitative scientific targets for healthy diets and sustainable food production, which together define a safe space within which food systems should operate to ensure that a broad set of human health and environmental sustainability goals are achieved.

Climate Change

Scientific researchdemonstrates that the olive tree is capable of sustainably fixing CO2 from the atmosphere in the soil. This is in clear contrast to what occurs with the main edible oil industries (i.e. palm oil, soybean oil, rapeseed oil, etc.), where the production of those refined oils, at a global level, has a negative net effect on atmospheric CO2. Within the olive growing systems, the number of plants per hectare and the use of appropriate agricultural practices have a fundamental importance in transforming a significant part of CO2 in biomass and humus, thus enhancing carbon fluxes from atmosphere to pedosphere and biosphere. During the past 20 years, Cobram Estate Olives Ltd as a company and its Oliv.iQ® growing system have been continuously taken the appropriate measures from the agricultural and industrial point of view in order to enhance the carbon sequestration ability of olive production. As a consequence of the adoption of those sustainable agricultural and industrial practices, it is estimated that our olive orchards sequestrate approximately 10 times more CO2/ha of olive groves than the average olive orchard in the world.

Water Usage

Food production is the world’s largest water-consuming sector. 84% of cropped land uses freshwater from rain, and the remaining 16% uses irrigation (i.e. water in freshwater lakes, rivers and aquifers) with 70% of all global water withdrawals used for irrigation. Traditionally, olives have been grown as a non-irrigated crop. Olives are well suited to Mediterranean dryland, with acceptable production and the ability to survive long periods of drought. However, experiments conducted for some time now have proven that even very small amounts of irrigation produce a considerable increase in olive grove yields. As a consequence of the adoption of the more sustainable and efficient agricultural and industrial practices that form part of the Oliv.iQ(R) and due to the significantly higher yields (in kg of oil/ha or gal/ac) than the industry average, it is estimated that our olive orchards produce olive oil with a consumption of water 37% lower per ton of oil than industry best practice average.

Fertilisation

Nitrogen and phosphorus are nutrient elements, vital to the structure and metabolism of living organisms on land and in oceans. Nitrogen and phosphorus are crucial for plant growth, but their natural availability limits plant growth in most ecosystems. Supply of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilisers to croplands is essential for maximising crop yields and will continue to be necessary for feeding a growing global population. Production, application, and trade of fertilisers disrupts global nitrogen and phosphorus cycles. Excessive application of nitrogen and phosphorus in food production has substantial consequences, notably in runoff into streams and rivers, driving eutrophication of freshwater and marine ecosystems and subsequent development of hypoxic (oxygen-free) conditions causing fish dieback and other environmental harm.

Olives, at world level, represent a very modest influence on fertiliser consumption when compared with other crops. On a global scale, production of olive oil uses about half of the amount of nitrogen per hectare than other oil crops like palm or rapeseed. Only soybean, due to its N fixation properties, consume less. The situation is even more evident with phosphorus, where olives require between 20 and 30% of the phosphorus used by other oil crops. As a consequence of the adoption of the more sustainable and efficient agricultural practices proposed by our Oliv.iQ(R) and due to the significantly higher yields (in kg of oil/ha or gal/ac) than the industry average, it is estimated that our olive orchards produce olive oil with a consumption of nitrogen fertiliser 61% lower per ton of oil than estimated industry average and with a consumption of phosphorus fertiliser 83% lower per ton of oil than estimated industry average.

Biodiversity

The diversity and richness of all living organisms on land and in water is necessary for the stability of ecosystems and productivity and resilience of food production systems. This functional value of biodiversity is often poorly understood and hugely undervalued. However, of more than 14 000 edible plant species, only 150–200 are used by humans with only three (rice, maize, and wheat) contributing 60% of the calories consumed by humans. In the case of edible oils, the situation is quite similar with just three oils (palm, soybean and rapeseed) contributing to 68% of the calories consumed by humans from this food group. Olive tree cultivation in the Mediterranean goes back to ancient times. Although an agro ecosystem, the olive grove resembles the natural Mediterranean ecosystem and abandonment transforms them into natural Mediterranean type forests.

Regarding the most important edible oils, oil palm and soybean systems share several commonalities regarding their environmental impacts in the tropics. While oil palm has been associated with direct forest clearing in Southeast Asia, soybean contributes to deforestation indirectly via linkages with cattle ranching in South America. During the past 20 years, Cobram Estate Olives Ltd as a company and its Oliv.iQ® growing system have been placing a significant attention to all aspects related to minimise any biodiversity loss in our sites. Some examples of those actions and practices are mapping and fencing over 1,300 ha of remnant native vegetation within our properties to protect its biodiversity values; managing remnant native vegetation consistent with the principles of Victoria’s Native Vegetation Management Framework; and establishing a 40-metre management buffer between the edge of native vegetation and irrigation areas, 25 metres of which has been revegetated though direct seeding of native flora.

Land System Change

Globally, the net area for food production has remained constant since the mid-20th century. However, this trend masks the real picture because substantial reductions in agricultural land have occurred in temperate regions of Europe, Russia, and North America, whereas substantial expansion of agricultural land has occurred in biodiversity-rich tropics. Food production is the largest driver of land use and land-use change, mainly through clearing of forests and burning of biomass. Olive cultivated area remains relatively constant over time. Any new developments are typically a replacement of older existing orchards or new plantations carried out in former grasslands and/or annually cultivated land. All our olive groves have been established in previously cleared agricultural land, predominantly with annual cereal crops. The conversion of annual cropping lands to permanent crops is understood to be a positive change from the sustainability of the system point of view. Additionally, the company followed strict guidelines to limit any potential impact of land-system change

Zero Waste

In recent years, there has been great social and environmental pressure for the efficient reutilization of agricultural industry residues due to the global intensification of food production that has led to the creation of large quantities of food co-products and wastes. Utilization of agro-industrial by-/co-products in farm animal nutrition, as organic fertilisers and/or as sources of valuable phytochemicals reduces the environmental impact of the food industry. Cobram Estate Olives Ltd, through its fully owned subsidiaries Boundary Bend Olives and Boundary Bend Wellness, its proprietary Oliv.iQ® olive growing system and its WellGrove® and Stone and Grove(R) brands, have made the achievement of a waste zero operation and the maximisation of the value of all its agro-industrial operations one of its fundamental pillars.

As holistic farmers caring for over 2.6 million olive trees along every step of their lifecycle journey, from nursery to planting and the annual harvest, Cobram Estate Olives Ltd are committed to ongoing scientific research and the essential role olive products play in health and wellness. Boundary Bend Ltd aim to capture all the natural goodness from the olive tree, enabling to deliver superior quality and fully traceable products with strong evidence-based claims and alignment with the health and wellness needs of the community.

Dietary Patterns

“Sustainability and planetary health are increasingly important topics when forming public health dietary recommendations and guidelines. The two are inextricably linked with agricultural food production occupying ~ 40% of the Earth’s land, accounting for up to up to 30% of global greenhouse gas production and ~ 70% of freshwater use. Of major public health concern is that the dominant diets currently consumed globally are not nutritionally optimal, lead to large increases in diet-related diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and are major contributors to climate change and environmental damage.” The Mediterranean diet is a case study for a sustainable eating pattern. It has strong scientific evidence for its health attributes, together with economic and socio-cultural benefits. Similar to the Eat-Lancet report reference diet, it is predominantly plant-based high consumption of unprocessed plant foods (grains, vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts/seeds and Extra Virgin Olive Oil), moderate consumption of fish/shellfish and wine and low consumption of meat, dairy, eggs, animal fats and discretionary foods. Extra Virgin Olive Oil is the main source of fat, and the ubiquitous cooking medium, in the Mediterranean Diet.

There is increasing evidence describing the unique and powerful role of Extra Virgin Olive Oil at the heart of the numerous regional variations of the Mediterranean Diet. It is a crucial enabler of a diet rich in vegetables, making a plant predominant diet enjoyable and sustainable. Applying the Oliv.iQ® system, Cobram Estate Olives Ltd and its brands Cobram Estate and Red Island have won an unprecedented 134 gold medals, 142 silver medals and 124 bronze medals over the past ten years making them some of the most awarded extra virgin olive oil brands in the world. Additionally, they have been awarded 18 Best in Shows and 22 Best in Classes in some of the most prestigious national and international shows such as Los Angeles International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition, New York International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition, Olive Japan International Extra Virgin Olive Oil Competition, Sydney Royal Fine Food Awards and AOA National Extra Virgin Olive Oil Awards. The Oliv.iQ® system has also achieved the inaugural award as the “Healthiest Olive Oil in the World” in the Health & Food Extra Virgin Olive Oil Awards Competition