As our planet continues to warm, as concerns about carbon footprints increase and as we look for solutions through green industry, it was important for us to begin to understand for ourselves how these concerns impact the olive industry and olive oil production.
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| Zetay Olive Grove was once an open pit coal mine |
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We were lucky to be able to use Zeynep Delen Nircan's connections to set up appointments with four sites in Turkey where enterprising Turks were looking for solutions. Our first trip was to a Tech Park in Eastern Istanbul at
Biolive (see our January blog) where we were able to talk with two of the three CDOs and learn about some of their plans for producing plastics from pits. We next were scheduled to go to
Horizon Advanced Tech, in Western Istanbul. These folks work to bring digital solutions to agriculture in a program they call Agriculture 5.0. While circumstances prevented our getting out to their site, they are on our list for future visits.
We then flew to Izmir, and stayed at our old stomping grounds of the Griffon Hotel in Yeni Foca. We spent a day at the
Orpir Pirina Olive Oil Refinery outside of Bergamon. We spent several hours learning how the waste pomace from plants throughout Turkey is turned into reclaimed oil, olive paste bricks for fuel, and solid pit residue that is in turn turned into pellets for compaines, like biolive, to turn into plastic.
Finally, we wrapped up this research trip with a visit to
Zetay Olive Grove and Press near Aydin.
Our trips were amazing and informative and are described more fully in Issue 17 of our World Olive Press Newsletter that you can access
here.
