Olives are a natural product and as such the quality of each crop is determined by both man and more importantly by the forces of nature.  With this in mind, Cleanthi Alpha-Olenic has strategically chosen not to be engaged in olive farming nor be in anyway involved in the full or partial ownership of any olive groves.

With all our expertise and complete focus dedicated solely to the processing and extraction, we never wish to compromise our ability to extract only the very highest quality nutraceutical EVOO.  Therefore, not owning our own olive groves is a huge advantage because we are never economically obligated to use our own olive harvest, even if they may not be the most suitable olives available. 

The advantage of not being olive farmers is that we monitor the entire regional crop and secure our olive requirements based solely on the highest quality olives available in each harvest year, and this is based on the suitability of the olive harvest and nothing else. 

Working closely with an entrusted group of organic olive farmers, our team of in-house olive experts and independent agronomists monitor the olive trees throughout the year and at all stages. Employing both state-of-the-art satellite imagery as well as traditional on-site visits, we carefully review their growth pattern, the development of their fruiting shoots (inflorescences) and take and analyze samples. 

Crucially, being a natural product, the quality and suitability of the olives is determined by many variables, including weather, pruning, watering and pest infestations etc, and as such is subject to change.  Therefore, to ensure that we secure only the finest and most suitable crop, we continue to monitor each olive field individually right the way through to literally the last minute, and based on our demanding olive selection criteria, and only when we are satisfied that the crop is of the very highest quality, do we proceed.

Even once we have committed to the farmers crop, we provide them with strict quality retention instructions, including our specific requirements for picking, gathering & transportation.  Most importantly – the olives that have been selected are picked immediately and delivered to us the very same day for processing. 

Moreover – to keep the quality of Alpha-Olenic Olive Oil® to a consistent and high standard, even once the olives arrive at our goods in station, they are again subject to our in-house quality control measures and even at this late stage, the olives that do not meet our strict quality requirements are rejected. 

Olive Variety & Harvest Time

We only ever process young early harvest green olives and mostly of the Koroneiki variety. Our strict olive maturity requirements means that once “our” early harvest season starts in approx. August/September, we are limited to and work within a small olive harvest window of approx. 10/12 weeks.