From small beginnings in Northland, New Zealand’s warmest region, Olivado has grown to be one of the world’s leading suppliers of high-quality avocado oil.
This is in no small part thanks to our pioneering cold-pressed extraction method, which allows us to turn our delicious, ripe fruit into quality cooking oil and still retain all the healthy properties along the way.
This incredible method has now become industry standard, for top-end cooking oils and is used throughout the world by other manufacturers.
Just another gift to the world from the Kiwis!
Olivado’s history
Olivado first started back at the turn of the millennium, the brain child of an enterprising team of businessmen and scientists. It wasn’t long before they had started a processing plant in Kerikeri, using a new, pioneering method of extracting oil from local avocados.
This new cold extraction process was working incredibly well, however, it soon became apparent that avocado production in New Zealand was too unstable to keep up with the high demand from overseas.
General Manager Jason Vokes, started to look elsewhere for a second production plant, and soon avocados from Queensland, Australia were being processed and turned into our delicious cooking oil.
Due to the tropical climate in Queensland, avocados grown in this region tend to be difficult to process due to the amount of wax they produce, so once again, the search was on for a second location.
We finally selected Kenya for our new plant, and in 2007 work began on a pilot project in Nairobi, and within 6 months, Olivado had over 400 small farm holdings, providing certified organic avocados.
This factory was so successful, another one followed in 2012.
Today, over 1,500 Fair Trade small farm holdings supply Olivado with avocados, producing 300 metric tonnes of extra virgin avocado oil per year.
How oil is extracted from an avocado
The oil from an avocado doesn’t come from the seed like most other oils. Instead it comes from the actual avocado pulp, the same fleshy part you spread on your toast.
All our avocados used are checked individually by hand, so only the very best make it into the oil. They are then washed in a giant bath, and after a thoroughly good scrubbing, the skins are removed, along with the stones inside.
This leaves just the delicious pulp, which contains the delicious and healthy oil which is then extracted.
Our pioneering cold-pressed extraction method
Olivado’s ground-breaking process takes the pulp of the avocado and mashes it up in a giant blender, turning it into something resembling guacamole.
This puree then goes into a centrifuge, where it spins with enough force to separate the oil and the water contained in the pulp.
This is the purest form of avocado oil.
The difference between the traditional method and our cold-pressed one is simple but essential – the temperature.
During the washing, blending, and spinning stages, we are very careful not to let the temperature rise above 50° Celsius.
This allows the oil to retain its essential nutrients, including its levels of chlorophylls and carotenoids, which give our avocado oil its gorgeous jade green colour.
Health benefits of our Olivado oil
This revolutionary extraction process also brings with it health benefits, including a higher percentage of the good kind of cholesterol (monounsaturated fatty acids), large amounts of polyphenols (for a healthy heart), Vitamin E, beta-sitosterol, lutein and lycopine, which helps reduce prostate cancer and macular degeneration.
It also has a higher smoking point, making it perfect for cooking, as you can fry, bake, stir-fry, deep-fry, sear, barbecue, roast and sauté with it.
The demand for high-quality cooking oil is growing, and we’re proud to be at the very forefront of innovation, both in technology and sustainability.
Only by this cold-extraction process can avocado oil be truly called extra-virgin, and our ground-breaking method is now used all around the world by other cooking oil producers.
If you would like to know more about our pioneering cold-pressed extraction process, please feel free to contact us.
Or if you would like to see our range of high-quality oils, take a look at our products range.