California Producers Keep Olives and Workers Safe in Record Heat

Excessive heat warn­ings are dom­i­nat­ing the news in California. According to the San Luis Obispo Tribune, the heat wave hit the promi­nent olive-grow­ing county, with tem­per­a­tures reach­ing 110 ºF (43.3 ºC).

CBS News reported record-high tem­per­a­tures were in the triple dig­its for much of the Sacramento Valley and across Northern California. The nearly cen­tury-old (1935) record of 108 ºF (42.2 ºC) was topped in Sacramento, with a high of 109 ºF (42.8 ºC) on July 16.

Cooling cen­ters are open around the state to assist with pre­ven­tion and recov­ery from heat-related ill­nesses.

With groves through­out the Sacramento Valley, Jim Lipman, the chief oper­at­ing offi­cer of California Olive Ranch, the largest pro­ducer in the United States, told Olive Oil Times: ​“We are not hav­ing an issue with the heat. We mon­i­tor our trees very closely and have been dili­gent in mak­ing sure the trees are prop­erly irri­gated.”

“Our main pri­or­ity is to pro­tect the trees and their fruit to ensure they don’t undergo undue stress,” he added. ​“The extreme heat at this time of the phe­no­log­i­cal cycle is not a major risk to the tree. At high tem­per­a­tures, the tree shuts down and stops push­ing growth to the olive, ulti­mately inhibit­ing the accu­mu­la­tion of fat and forc­ing the tree to abort its fruit.”

Meanwhile, in his groves in Madera, about 220 kilo­me­ters south of Sacramento, Vincent Ricchiuti, the founder of Enzo Olive Oil Company, reached a sim­i­lar con­clu­sion.

“The olive trees and olives are hold­ing strong,” he told Olive Oil Times. ​“We have invested in a lot of water tech­nol­ogy to help us bet­ter under­stand what our crop needs are in real-time. Our irri­ga­tion sched­ules def­i­nitely increased in the past few weeks to counter-bal­ance the heat wave.”

Back in the Sacramento Valley, Leandro Ravetti, the chief olive oil maker and co-chief exec­u­tive of Cobram Estate Olives, said olives are nat­u­rally resilient plants and fol­low­ing strate­gic mea­sures could mit­i­gate the impacts of high heart.

“The olive tree is a very resilient and drought-tol­er­ant plant,” Ravetti told Olive Oil Times. ​“It has mech­a­nisms to han­dle heat waves quite well in com­par­i­son with other hor­ti­cul­tural crops.”

“Over the past 20 years, Cobram Estate Olives and its Olive.iQ grow­ing sys­tem have worked together to take appro­pri­ate strate­gic mea­sures to pre­pare for poten­tial effects of cli­mate change at a regional level of our groves,” he added.

Ravetti described exam­ples of strate­gic actions and prac­tices. ​“Adoption of medium to high plant­ing den­si­ties leads to a higher degree and more con­sis­tent lev­els of pro­duc­tion,” he said. ​“Use of a wide range of vari­eties enables us to max­i­mize cur­rent and future flex­i­bil­ity needed to incor­po­rate genet­ics bet­ter adapted to new cli­matic con­di­tions.”

“Implementation of our Olive.iQ cli­matic analy­sis assists us in deter­min­ing opti­mal grow­ing areas and or iden­ti­fy­ing poten­tial envi­ron­men­tal risks to put in place mit­i­ga­tion prac­tices when pos­si­ble,” he added.

Strategic mea­sures, Ravetti said, include a vari­ety of actions and prac­tices, such as the adop­tion of pres­sur­ized low-vol­ume irri­ga­tion sys­tems to improve water appli­ca­tion effi­ciency.

“The irri­ga­tion sys­tem is designed accord­ing to a com­pre­hen­sive and exhaus­tive soil map­ping deter­min­ing suit­able areas for devel­op­ment and most appro­pri­ate valve design and shift arrange­ments,” he said.

“Adoption of state-of-the-art irri­ga­tion sched­ul­ing and soil and tree mon­i­tor­ing help to bet­ter eval­u­ate the response sys­tem to the amount of water applied through irri­ga­tion,” Ravetti added.

He also detailed the impor­tance of adopt­ing ​“per­ma­nent crop con­ser­va­tion man­age­ment for the inter rows with a strict pol­icy of no-tillage.”

Efforts to pro­tect olive trees are in tan­dem with strate­gic steps to pro­tect staff and farm work­ers. A report from Valley Public Radio said that as California’s heat wave inten­si­fies, farm­work­ers in some regions are bear­ing the brunt. State offi­cials say they are send­ing more agents out to help pro­tect work­ers by enforc­ing the state’s heat reg­u­la­tions.

The report noted that early signs of heat stroke can include nau­sea, dizzi­ness and headaches. California law requires employ­ers to pro­vide breaks for work­ers, shade and drink­ing water. The report con­firmed that across California, state offi­cials have fined more than 500 employ­ers for vio­lat­ing heat reg­u­la­tions this year.

In con­trast, offi­cials at California Olive Ranch, Enzo and Cobram Estate said work­ing con­di­tions are a top pri­or­ity. The employ­ers added that they work dili­gently to pro­tect work­ers in high-heat con­di­tions.

Lipman explained that California Olive Ranch has pro­ce­dures in place to take care of team mem­ber safety.

“Our focus, first and fore­most, is the safety of our team mem­bers, espe­cially dur­ing this heat wave,” he said. ​“When we have high tem­per­a­tures, we adjust the team’s sched­ules so they are active dur­ing the cooler hours.”

“That could mean work­ing nights instead of days or shift­ing their start times to ear­lier in the day,” Lipman added. ​“All work­ers have access to shade and water when they are in the field. Hydration is so impor­tant.”

Ricchiuti echoed that the safety of Enzo team mem­bers and farm work­ers is a top pri­or­ity, espe­cially in extreme heat. ​“We take great care of the well-being of team mem­bers and make sure every­one enjoys a safe work­ing envi­ron­ment,” he said.

“When the heat rises, we shift our sched­ule to an ear­lier start so we are not out in the ele­ments dur­ing peak tem­per­a­tures,” Ricchiuti added. ​“We also will do cer­tain farm activ­i­ties like spray­ing overnight when the tem­per­a­tures are much cooler for our team mem­bers.”

Ravetti con­curred: ​“Cobram Estate uses a high degree of automa­tion and mech­a­niza­tion in our farms,” he said. ​“This enables us to adopt a flex­i­ble approach regard­ing work­ing hours and times of day when cer­tain prac­tices need to occur.”

“This flex­i­bil­ity, in turn, helps us pro­vide the best pos­si­ble work­ing envi­ron­ment for our staff when extreme cli­matic con­di­tions occur,” Ravetti added.

According to CBS News, high tem­per­a­tures are expected to drop back into the 90s (32 ºC to 37 ºC), although triple dig­its may return to the region. With this extreme heat as a back­drop, pro­duc­ers weighed in on what is needed for suc­cess in the upcom­ing har­vest.

Lipman iden­ti­fied irri­ga­tion as the vital com­po­nent for a suc­cess­ful har­vest. ​”Irrigation is the most impor­tant vari­able we are con­trol­ling today. Irrigation is crit­i­cal to allow the fruit to size and to drive fat accu­mu­la­tion,” he said. ​“We are also per­form­ing some canopy man­age­ment activ­i­ties to allow for effi­cient fruit removal with the har­vesters.”

Optimism is the mes­sage from Ricchiuti. ​“We are look­ing for­ward to a suc­cess­ful har­vest this sea­son,” he said. ​“We have invested in some amaz­ing tech­nol­ogy to under­stand bet­ter how the trees are being impacted so we can make the needed farm adjust­ments in real-time.”

“The olive tree is well equipped to deal with high tem­per­a­tures pro­vid­ing rel­e­vant cul­tural prac­tices such as prun­ing, fer­til­iza­tion and, fun­da­men­tally irri­ga­tion, are well exe­cuted,” Ravetti added. ​“Continuing to apply best hor­ti­cul­tural prac­tices over the com­ing months will be impor­tant to ensure nor­mal devel­op­ment of the fruit and its oil accu­mu­la­tion.”

“Results will always be influ­enced to some extent by cli­matic con­di­tions, but with proper man­age­ment, it is pos­si­ble to mit­i­gate poten­tial impacts on yields and qual­ity,” he con­cluded.

• San Luis Obispo Tribune
• KVPR