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OLIVE HARVESTING
Harvest time in the olive industry is a defining moment for olive oil and table olive producers. Efficient harvesting not only determines yield and profitability but also impacts fruit quality and timing for processing. Traditionally, picking olives by hand with poles, rakes, and nets was an arduous, labour-intensive process - in fact, manual harvesting with rakes and nets can account for 50% of an orchard’s production costs. Today the rising labour shortages and tighter margins, modern growers are increasingly turning to mechanisation to save time and money. The Olive Centre, a specialist supplier for the Australian olive industry, offers a full spectrum of harvesting equipment to address these needs - from state-of-the-art mechanical shakers like the Sicma harvesters to portable electric comb rakes, pneumatic rakes, nets, wheelable frames, and other accessories. This range of tools, paired with research-driven best practices, allows commercial groves to optimise harvest efficiency while maintaining fruit quality. Below, we explore each category of harvesting equipment available through The Olive Centre, focussing on key features, suitable applications, and insights from recent studies and field experience.
Mechanical harvesters are the heavyweights of olive harvesting - high frequency vibration systems built into the machines that shake fruit off trees with speed and efficiency. The Olive Centre provides a leading range of mechanical harvesters, including tractor-mounted shaker heads, skid-steer loader attachments, and dedicated self-propelled “buggy” harvesters. These systems use a vibrating head equipped with a clamp system that attaches to the tree’s trunk or main branches, transmitting high-frequency oscillations that travel with force to the higher branches holding olives to their stems. The result is a rapid cascade of olives into catching systems, often an inverted umbrella or frame beneath the tree. In well-designed groves, a single mechanical shaker can typically harvest 40–60 trees per hour (with a clamp-and-shake cycle of only 5-7 seconds per tree) - a dramatic improvement over manual picking rates. One Australian field review notes the jump from roughly 100 kg of olives per hour using the latest pneumatic or electric hand tools to approximately 500 kg per hour with efficient mechanical harvesting machines. This efficiency in throughput allows growers to bring in the crop at optimal ripeness and throughput, provided the subsequent milling capacity keeps pace.
A Sicma B411 Plus self-propelled olive harvester with its 6 m catching umbrella deployed. The Olive Centre’s partnership with Sicma gives Australian growers access to Italian-engineered mechanical harvesters known for efficiency and robust design.
Modern trunk shakers come in various configurations to suit different operations and grove terrain. The Olive Centre’s lineup includes tractor PTO-driven models (e.g., vibrating heads mounted on a tractor’s three-point linkage or front-end loader), retrofittable kits for skid-steer loaders and telehandlers, and stand-alone self-propelled units often nicknamed “buggies.” For example, the Sicma B411 Plus is a compact 4-wheel-drive buggy harvester with a telescopic vibrating head and a 6-meter diameter catching umbrella. This machine can clamp onto trunks up to ~40 cm in diameter and shake the fruit free, which falls into the umbrella. The built-in catch frame on such harvesters typically holds 200–300 kg of olives, and can be emptied through a hydraulic trap door into bins or trailers for easy collection. Thanks to features like high-frequency self-centering shaker heads and rubberised clamps, these systems minimise bark damage while maximising fruit removal.
In fact, a recent Italian field study on two olive cultivars achieved a 97% fruit removal rate using an advanced vibrating head and catch-frame system - virtually clearing trees in one shake. Mechanical harvesters are the workhorses of modern olive groves, enabling the timely harvest of large tonnages with a fraction of the manpower once required.
Practical considerations: Adopting trunk shakers does require that groves be compatible with the machinery.
Not every olive grove can accommodate a large shaker in their operation, and not every producer needs one. Electric and pneumatic olive harvesters - essentially motorised or air-powered “comb” or “rake” units – fill an important role for small to mid-sized producers and for groves on difficult terrain. These are handheld or pole-mounted tools with vibrating tines that comb through the olive branches, knocking olives off much faster than purely manual picking. The Olive Centre offers several options in this category:
Despite being smaller-scale than trunk shakers, electric and pneumatic harvesters substantially improve productivity over manual hand picking. Field data and grower reports suggest a single worker with a modern pneumatic or electric rake can harvest on the order of 80–120 kg of olives per hour (depending on tree yield and skill) - several times what hand picking would yield. One recent analysis noted about 100 kg/hour as a benchmark using the latest pneumatic or electric rakes. These tools are therefore very useful for reducing labour hours and addressing seasonal labour shortages, which have become a recurrent obstacle in olive production. They also excel in groves where tree spacing or steep hilly terrain make it impractical to bring in heavy machinery. Operators can simply lay out nets under a tree and work through the canopy with the powered rake, a method that is far less fatiguing than beating branches with poles.
Handheld harvesters do require proximity to each tree and are typically used by multiple workers. The efficiency per person is lower than a single large shaker with a catch frame (which can outpace a whole team of people), so producers must balance equipment investment with their useage capability and available labor. In many cases, electric or pneumatic combs are the preferred solution for small olive groves, where gentle handling and selective harvesting might be needed. They cause minimal damage when used properly, though some fruit bruising can occur – so harvested olives, especially table varieties, usually are collected onto nets or padding and not dropped from excessive heights to avoid bruising. Research into gentler harvesting continues: for instance, trials in California have combined canopy shaking with trunk shaking to improve efficiency for table olives. This method increased fruit removal by 75% and delivered higher-quality, less-damaged fruit compared to using either method alone. While such dual-method harvesters are still in development for table olives, it underscores that even in the realm of smaller-scale equipment, innovation is boosting performance. The Olive Centre stays abreast of these developments, supplying trusted brands (like Electric tools by Infaco, & Pneumatic equipment by Lisam) that have a track record in international olive cultivation. For growers, electric and pneumatic harvesters represent a relatively affordable and versatile investment to significantly cut harvest time and labour costs without the need for heavy machinery and a much bigger budget.
Harvesting equipment is not just about the machines that detach olives - it also encompasses all the tools that catch, collect, and transport the fruit once it’s off the tree. The Olive Centre offers a wide array of “catch and carry” accessories to support efficient harvesting operations. Among these are harvest nets and catching frames. Traditionally, tarps or nets are spread under olive trees to collect olives as they are hand-picked or knocked down with poles. Today’s purpose-made olive nets are durable, UV-resistant, and come in various sizes that can be fitted around trunk bases. They drastically reduce the time needed to gather fallen olives and prevent fruit loss on the ground. Some modern harvesters use an umbrella-style catching frame – essentially a large circular net on a frame that can be deployed under the tree (either by a person or as an attachment on a machine) to catch olives as they rain down. The Olive Centre offers products like a 5–6 m diameter catching frame that can be positioned around the trunk to funnel olives into an Industry-standard Orange Crate and will fit about 20kgs of fruit per crate. Such frames can be a game-changer for groves still harvested by hand or with electric or pneumatic combs, as they keep fruit off the soil (maintaining cleanliness and quality) and make collection faster.
Image: Major Catching Harvest Frame
The introduction of nets and basic mechanical aids in the mid-20th century was one of the first steps to mechanising olive harvests, replacing ladders and ground picking to reduce work time and safety risks for workers.
Another staple harvest accessory is hand rakes and picking tools. These simple, hand-driven rake devices (often plastic combs capable of making them a reachable unit by installing a broom handle) allow pickers to strip olives from branches more efficiently than by handpicking each fruit. A broom handle sourced at a local hardware store can be inserted into the back of the handle to make these reach greater heights. The Olive Centre’s catalogue includes these manual rakes that are useful for growers starting out, for very small operations or used with a large team. .
Picking bags and baskets are also important: workers can wear a picking bag to drop olives into as they hand-pick or move along the rows, then empty the bags into crates or bins periodically. Good picking bags distribute weight, are not too large and often have a quick-release bottom to safely transfer olives without spillage and impact which minimises bruising.
Crates and bins round out the harvest accessories – The Olive Centre provides vented plastic orange olive crates (around 15–20 kg capacity each) and heavy-duty pallet bins (~400 kg capacity) to safely store and transport harvested olives. These containers are food-grade and ventilated to prevent heat buildup or fermentation of olives before milling. They can be moved with tractors or forklifts, streamlining the post-harvest logistics.
Image: Orange Olive Crate
When it comes to moving bulk olives in the field, trailers and bins become essential. Many mechanical harvesting setups integrate with trailers; for example, a tractor shaking unit might drop fruit onto a towed trailer with a catching cloth, or a self-propelled buggy like the Sicma has its own bin reservoir that can be emptied into a trailer via a trap door. Even independent of mechanical shakers, growers often use tractor-pulled trailers to ferry filled pallet bins from the grove to the processing area. The Olive Centre can supply specialised bin trailer equipment and tipping mechanisms that make this process more efficient. The overall goal of all these accessories is to preserve fruit quality and save labour between the tree and the mill. Every hour saved collecting olives from the ground or transferring them to storage is efficiency gained in getting the olives to processing, which can be critical for oil quality. Research consistently emphasises rapid processing of olives after harvest (generally within 24 hours is best practice) to maintain low free fatty acidity and high polyphenol content. By using proper harvest aids - nets to keep olives clean, bins to avoid fruit piles overheating, and trailers to quickly haul fruit - producers can better achieve those quality goals.
Equipping an olive operation with the right tools is half the battle; the other half is using them in an optimised harvest strategy. Fortunately, extensive academic and industry research offers guidance on how to mechanise effectively without compromising the olives. One key concept is fruit detachment force (FDF) - essentially, how strongly an olive is attached to its branch. FDF decreases as olives ripen, which is why oil olives (allowed to ripen longer) are generally easier to remove, whereas table olives (picked green) are much more stubborn. A University of California study noted that table olives have a fruit removal force of about 0.5 kg - meaning they require significantly more shaking or even chemical loosening to enhance fruit removal. Oil olives, usuall progressed in manturation (compared to green table fruit), have a lower detachment force, and modern high-density oil cultivars are usually harvested by over-the-row machinery like an Moresil, Oxbo, New Holland or Colossus. This explains why trunk shakers and canopy shakers are an innovation mainly needed for table olive orchards (to address their high FDF), whereas oil olive groves in super-high-density (SHD) systems can be harvested by modified grape harvesters that strip fruit with minimal effort. For producers, understanding their varieties’ detachment characteristics can inform which equipment to use and whether strategies like applying an abscission agent (fruit loosening spray) might be worthwhile. In ongoing trials, compounds like ethephon are being tested to reduce olive attachment strength and thus increase mechanical harvester efficiency. Use fruit loosening agents with caution as improper use can defolate the entire tree.
Another insight from research is the importance of grove design and pruning in mechanical harvesting success. A tree with an open, accessible structure (single trunk, properly managed canopy) should yield better results with shakers. Studies from Europe have documented that tree architecture and pruning style significantly affect vibration transmission and fruit removal. Many growers now implement mechanical pruning and keep trees shorter to accommodate harvest machinery - a necessary adaptation as “there is no mechanical harvesting without orchard and canopy adaptation,” as one agricultural engineer famously put it. This might mean switching to hedgestyle planting (250–300 trees/ha) if one plans to use over-the-row harvesters, or simply maintaining a 6– 8 m spacing and a vase or single leader form for traditional orchards using trunk shakers. The Olive Centre, beyond just providing equipment, also provides grove consulting services to help producers plan such transitions, ensuring that investments in machinery are matched by an orchard setup that maximises efficiency and minimises fruit loss.
Finally, research confirms that speed and timing of harvest are crucial for quality. Mechanical harvesters enable a very fast picking .... entire blocks can be harvested at the optimal ripeness window rather than stretched over weeks. By concentrating harvest in the optimal period, growers can obtain olives at peak oil quality and get them milled promptly.
Evidence from studies in Spain and Italy shows that when olives are harvested at the right maturity and processed quickly, mechanisation does not impair oil quality metrics; on the contrary, timely harvesting can result in higher-quality extra virgin olive oil compared to a protracted hand harvest, where some fruit inevitably becomes overripe or delays in processing occur due to extended time duration needed.
For table olives, minimising bruising is a bigger concern, and the research offers pointers - for instance, experiments have shown harvesting in the cool pre-dawn hours can reduce fruit bruising and respiration, improving the condition of mechanically harvested table olives. Such findings are encouraging producers to adjust harvest schedules and techniques (e.g., adding padding to catch frames or using conveyors instead of dropping olives into bins) to protect fruit quality.
Tthe modern olive grower has an unprecedented range of harvesting equipment at their disposal, and when these tools are coupled with informed practices, the results are compelling: lower costs, higher efficiency, and preserved quality. Offering industry leading equipment - from Sicma’s cutting-edge shakers to nimble electric rakes, and all the supporting gear - reflects the evolving landscape of olive harvesting. By leveraging both technology and research-based know-how, commercial olive producers can confidently tackle the critical harvest season, bringing in the crop efficiently and at peak quality to ultimately produce better oil and table olives for the market.
Harvesting will always be a pivotal and challenging aspect of olive production, but it no longer needs to be a bottleneck. The range of equipment available through TheOliveCentre.com empowers growers to choose solutions tailored to their grove size, layout, and production goals. Whether it’s a robust mechanical harvester shaking 500 kg of olives per hour into an umbrella, or a team of workers with electric combs and nets swiftly stripping trees on a hillside, each approach offers advantages that can improve the bottom line. Importantly, ongoing innovation - much of it supported by academic and government research from Australia and abroad - continues to refine these tools and techniques for greater efficiency, ensuring that higher productivity does not come at the expense of fruit quality. With The Olive Centre’s expertise and equipment range (including their partnership with world-class harvesting machine manufacturers), Australian olive growers have access to the best of both worlds: advanced technology proven in international groves, and local knowledge and support to implement it successfully. The result is a harvest that’s faster, easier, and more profitable – helping producers focus on what comes next, turning those olives into exceptional oil and table olives for consumers to enjoy.