Wages of workers 60-80 euros per day for whipping – E.g. for 1,000 kilos of oil the cost with labor, food, etc. reaches 900 euros – This year’s poor production prompts many crop owners not to hire land workers
From 900 (with harvest) to 1,100 euros (with mid-harvest) per 1,000 kilos of olive oil, this year the cost of harvesting the olive fruit on our island, with an average daily wage of 60 euros per worker and a crew of eight to ten workers, who and they are needed to enable the producer to harvest one ton of olive oil.
This cost does not include the coffee, croissants and generally the food that the olive producer needs to have with him, for the workers he will employ on his farm. This cost, in fact, does not yet include the cost of transportation, nor the cost of fuel, which will be used to operate the olive-stirring machine and make the olives, nor any money that he may have to pay the farmer to people who will load and unload his sacks!
These figures have been calculated and revealed to us by veteran agricultural trade unionist and co-operative from Dafnes Napoleon Loukadakis, even saying that at the same time, as long as the drought continues, the olive fruit has shrunk and does not have the oil content it would have if it had already fallen. rain in our country, that is, the olives have not yet “oiled”, but despite everything, the world has started to harvest its harvest, for reasons related both to the good prices and to the weather conditions. And this is because, because there are “ligatures” in the liophytes, they fall constantly with the winds and the harvest is unjustly and ignominiously lost on the ground, at a time when the producer price is expected to start from 7 to 8 euros per kilo.
“The cost to harvest 1,000 kilos of oil is around 900 euros with a daily wage of 60 euros per day and a crew of eight to ten workers. In other words, a producer puts his motorbike, his sails, his poles and takes eight to ten workers and pays around 900 euros to collect one ton, as long as he has a harvest. If it has a mid-pruning, the cost rises to 1,100 euros for a ton of oil”, said the olive producer and former president of EAS Heraklion, Napoleon Loukadakis, to neakriti.gr.
The reservations…
In fact, in addition to this cost, as Napoleon Loukadakis explains, there is also the factory reservation, which is around 12%. So for 1,000 kilos of oil, the producer will give the factory that will grind his olives 120 euros. “So”, according to the cooperative, “we have around 1.5 euros per kilo, labor and grinding costs for the producer. The cost is high. And if prices were at 3 euros per kilo, as they were in previous years, people would leave many of their olive trees unpicked. We saw this happen many times, in previous years, when we had prices of 3 euros and below”, as Napoleon Loukadakis, the agricultural trade unionist from Dafnes in the municipality of Heraklion, explains to neakriti.gr.
“Of course, if we also add the food or the croissants and coffees that the producer puts out for his workers, the cost rises to 1.55 euros per kilo”, as he points out, clarifying that it is wrong today to hold the opinion that the oil, if it will be paid to the producer around 7 to 8 euros per kilo, is actually expensive.
“Let’s also say that in many cases the farmer will have to pay other workers, at around 80 euros per ton, to load the sacks and take them to the factory and then unload them,” according to Napoleon Loukadakis. “So, in these cases the total cost per kilo of olive oil rises to 1.62 euros”!
Many will leave their olives unpicked this year
In the meantime, the largest part of the olive-producing world will not harvest its olives in Crete at all. “When the olives are few, it is not worth picking them. And because of the drought, the olives are in bad shape. And many may not go collecting at all, despite the incentive of high prices. If it doesn’t rain, there will be few olives. We have both the high temperatures on the one hand and the humidity on the other, which have contributed to the return of the dam, which has already caused damage”, as the former president of EASI says.
Concluding, he says: “If we read the available research, we will see that the cost of the olive oil that a person needs every day is 1.5 euros a day. So the cost is not much at today’s prices. But let’s not go for prices above 8 euros. Don’t go to 10 and 12 euros per kilo, because then people will turn to seed oils.”
Source:neakriti.gr
