Mechanical harvesting of olives-an operations study

Boaz Zion, Avital Bechar, Rafi Regev, Nachshon Shamir, Aharon Weissblum, Yitzhak Zipori, Arnon Dag

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

Harvesting has become the bottleneck of the olive oil industry, and the shortage of agricultural workers is the main motivation behind the search for mechanical solutions. The efficiency of three mechanical olive-harvesting systems and methods was measured in the course of two seasons, and their advantages and disadvantages were evaluated. None of the trunk shakers and their associated harvesting methods was sufficiently efficient to enable the number of people needed to strike the branches with sticks to be reduced. Vine harvesters of the type used for harvesting olives were found to leave significant quantities of olives on the trees.A two-stage harvesting method was also tested and found to be feasible. It is based on a gentle harvest of mature fruits early in the season, followed by a complementary strip-harvest at a later stage of maturity. The results do not seem to support the economic viability of this harvesting method for cv. 'Barnea', but it may be suitable for cv. 'Frantoio', which is known as a hard-to-harvest variety.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)71-84
Number of pages14
JournalIsrael Journal of Plant Sciences
Volume59
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Dec 2011
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • labor
  • mechanical harvest
  • oil
  • olives

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
  • Agronomy and Crop Science
  • Plant Science

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Mechanical harvesting of olives-an operations study'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this