Agriculture
19 January, 2026
$173m California olive gold rush
COBRAM Estate Olives will buy the leading producer of Californian extra virgin olive oil.
The $175.5 million deal by the owners of the Boort olive grove and processing plant was announced to shareholders on Christmas Eve.
California Olive Ranch will be part of Cobram Estate, expanding the company’s US footprint. COR operates a vertically integrated model spanning olive cultivation, milling, bottling and marketing, managing 1870 hectares of olive groves and operating a mill, oil storage, bottling and warehouse in Artois, California, near the groves.
Cobram Estate said the purchase would accelerate sales growth and market penetration with fast-growing, complementary brands and product ranges forecast to generate US$150 million in net revenue next financial year.
Board chair Rob McGavin said: “The acquisition of California Olive Ranch Inc., delivers a compelling set of strategic and financial benefits for CBO.
“It immediately expands our Californian olive growing footprint from approximately 1422 hectares to around3292 hectares of planted groves, while accelerating sales growth through the addition of well-established, premium household brands.
“The close geographic proximity of operations, strong cultural alignment, and opportunity to leverage our Oliv.iQ and Modern Olives capabilities, create a clear pathway to unlock meaningful synergies,” he said.
Meanwhile, the company’s Australian groves have completed flowering.
“Boundary Bend grove (flowering) occurring during the last week of October and first week of November and during the first and second week of November at the company’s Boort grove,” it said.
This season is marked as a lower yielding crop for many of Cobram’s Australian groves, although the company says good condition of the groves, favourable seasonal conditions to date and their increasing maturity, the crop forecast is only moderately lower than 2025.
“We expect first half Group packaged goods sales to be broadly in line with last year’s record results, despite global olive oil supply and prices normalising and promotional discounting in Australian and USA supermarkets returning to historical levels.
Read More: Berrimal, Boort