Ehmann's efforts helped the California olive industry prosper into more than 35,000 acres (14,000 hectares) of orchards producing in excess of 100,000 tons of olives tended by some 1,200 growers.
The olives drop down into a cache and then move up what might be called "olive escalators" that dump the fruit into giant gondola-like trucks that capture tons of olives every few hours.
In 1982 less than 30,000 metric tons of olive oil were imported into this country.
THERE is only one wrestling tournament in the world at which contestants use tons of olive oil.
Since Marseglia bought the complex, in 1981, it has grown fif-teenfold; in 2005, the company processed about a million tons of olive oil and vegetable oils.
Developed by a U.S.-trained anthropologist, the venture sent 350 tons of olive oil to the United States and Europe in 2008, about $4 million worth, with projections that the amount could triple in a couple of years.
Virtually all of the 293,000 metric tons of olive oil consumed in the U.S. last year originated from European countries such as Spain and Italy.
In Egypt, there are about 118,382 feddan planted with olive trees, the fruitful area 96,810 feddan, produce about 314,450 ton of olive, representing 3.25 ton/feddan (Ministry of Agriculture and Land Reclamation, 2012).
Olive oil production leaves roughly 5.5 million tons of crushed olive pulp and skin.
Mr. De La Torre's cooperative, for instance, after pressing 2,600 tons of virgin olive oil a year, is left with almost 10,000 tons of crushed olive skin and pulp.
California ripe olives are not great for tapenade, but there are literally tons of good, inexpensive olives from Italy, Greece, Spain and France.
