COBRAM Estate Olives is close to sealing a deal that could see it double the company’s grove footprint in the United States.
Owners of the 3508-hectare grove at Boort with 1.24 million trees say the US deal would see more than 1500 hectares of groves owned in California.
Joint CEOs Leandro Ravetti and Sam Beaton said: “The company is in the process of purchasing 1534 hectares of land, within close proximity of our existing Californian groves. 
“This will support another 1065 hectares of plantable grove area - 970 hectares of new plantings and a 95-hectare mature olive grove.
“This will enable Cobram Estate to fast track the planned development of company-owned olive groves, increasing olive oil supply over the medium term. 
“Of the combined 1534 hectares, 385 hectares have settled, with the balance under contract and in the final stages of due diligence. Once developed, this will more than double the Company owned grove area in the USA. 
“The acquisition is being funded partially by the company’s free cashflow and partially by debt.”
Meanwhile, the company has told shareholders that flowering for the 2025 crop commenced from late-October on its Australian groves, with full bloom at the Boundary Bend grove occurring during the last week of October and during the first week of November at the Boort grove. 
“This was in line with long-term average. Climatic conditions were favourable during the flowering period leading to normal levels of fruit set,” Mr Ravetti and Mr Beaton said.
“It is important to remember that 2025 is a higher yielding crop year on many of our Australian groves and that final yields are subject to the normal risks associated with agricultural production.
“The 2024 Californian harvest led to the production of three million litres of olive oil. This volume is just 6.4 per cent lower than 2023 and 77.1 per cent higher than 2022, the previous ‘off’ year. 
“This growth in production comparing to the last ‘off’ year is driven by the larger area under supply contract from third party olive growers and the maturing profile of our groves in California. The production from our own groves was in line with expectations and represented 23 per cent  of the total oil this year in comparison with 11 per cent in 2023.
“It is important to highlight that currently only 11 per cent of our  USA groves are mature, 30 per cent are immature, and 59 per cent are yet to come into production.”
They said sales in Australia and USA were performing strongly with packaged goods sales well ahead of budget for the five months to November.