Wollundry Grove Olives
If you dine out in Wagga Wagga, or other parts of the Riverina, chances are Wollundry Grove Olives or Extra Virgin Olive Oil is on the menu or in the food you eat. Joo-Yee, co-owner of Wollundry Grove Olives shares their 'grassroots' story below.
Q. How did your grassroots story start?
A. The story of our involvement with Wollundry Grove started in 2010 when we relocated after selling a farm at Balranald because of the millennium drought. We immediately started processing fruit with the existing processing plant and then after one season, we realised that it was not going to cut the mustard. Since we have gone through a whole grove makeover, expansion of the shed and processing plant and new visitor experiences.
Q. How would you define your business/service as local?
A. Our specialty is processing olives into Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) for the southern region of New South Wales. As well as supplying our products nationally, we also supply to a large area of the Riverina region, especially in Wagga Wagga to retailers, cafés and restaurants. We have also encouraged the district to pick their olive fruit and have it processed here as we offer a service of processing small batches of olives. This service means that local people can now utilise their olives and turn them into fresh olive oil instead of letting the fruit go to waste. We have linkages with other tourism operators in the Wagga Wagga region to enhance the visitor experience.
Q. How have you pivoted during this time of Covid-19? And, have you experienced an increase in ‘shopping local?’
A. Except for our tourism and restaurant supply side where the numbers dropped away, not much has changed. As an essential service, we still had a harvest to get in, fruit to pick and crush and still processed other people’s olives. The media exposure of the effects of the drought on farming communities has helped with our online sales, which have substantially increased and has been a big help to highlight the difficult conditions that regional Australia can experience. Though the online sales have picked up, it is hard to tell how much of that is related to Covid-19, however there seems to be some reconnection with regional Australia from our city counterparts happening now.
Q. Why is it important for consumers to shop/root for local?
A. It is important to support small local producers as it adds resilience to the food supply chain, with diversity, variety and freshness added to people’s diet. It also helps to circulate more income locally when it is produced in the region.
Q. What’s next for your business/service?
A. Our focus from this point on is to embed ourselves more in the local community, both with supporting local businesses and community groups. Being situated between Wagga Wagga and Junee, with Coolamon to the West, we are in a unique situation for tourists to visit and experience as the ‘go to grove’ for olives, oil or even for olive processing. Our plant is quite modern and we have a program of upgrading to ensure that when you bring olives here, you get the right advice, the right equipment and the right service.
Head to Wollundry Grove Olive's online listing for more on this great business.
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