Is it feasible to start my own olive oil production as a living?

I live in New Zealand, and noticed that there seem to be almost no locally produced olive oils here. I am originally from Europe and I love olives and olive oil. Now I'm thinking, ';what if I had my own oil mill and bottling plant?'; It's easy to get olives, and bottles. And everybody here uses olive oil, so I think I could sell it.


But would I need to be really wealthy to pull this off?


I'm a lecturer and not exactly printing my own money. But I could see myself doing this in ten to twenty years or so.


What would you say I should do?Is it feasible to start my own olive oil production as a living?
Of course its going to take start-up money, and therein lies your problem. The olive oil industry is growing in my part of the world (California) as well. What I'm finding is that the small olive growers who want to market olive oil under their own label are forming cooperatives and investing in the necessary equipment together and sharing facilities. Or they simply own the land and lease the trees to someone who is responsible for the crop and the production - these are usually large olive oil producers who have the capital to construct the production facility on their own.





Even the small producers tend to be somewhat wealthy because land here is so expensive and even they are finding it most cost effective to share costs with other producers. Small wineries tend to also follow this model.





So your best bet is to talk to producers and find out what they are doing now. Save as much capital as you can and see if you can find grower partners who are willing to invest and form a cooperative with you. It would help if you found a job in the industry now, say working with a large producer so you can learn the business. This will also give you more credibility when you are finally ready to go on your own.