Chaozhou Olives

Chaozhou Olives

　　Olives, also known as green fruit, get their name because they can be eaten fresh while still green. Olive fruits are rich in calcium and vitamin C, offering great benefits to health. It is an evergreen tree native to China. As the saying goes, “Peach trees bear fruit in three years, plum trees in four, and olive trees in seven.” Olive trees need seven years of cultivation before they start bearing fruit, with the harvest season generally around October each year. Young olive trees initially produce very little, yielding only a few kilograms per tree, and significant increases occur only after 25 years, sometimes reaching over 500 kilograms. Olive trees typically yield less the year following a heavy crop, and require one to two years of rest. Therefore, olive production varies between high-yield and low-yield years.