After eight years of harnessing olive saplings brought from Israel, Rajasthan is all set to launch next month its own brand olive oil, which it claims, will be the country’s first indigenously-produced brand.

“The state will be launching its olive oil under the brand ‘Raj Olive Oil’ at the Global Rajasthan Agri-tech Meet (GRAM),” state Agriculture Minister Prabhu lal Saini said.

After the product’s launch, the state will work on avenues to market it and seek cooperation from experts to increase its production.

According to agriculture officials, the state till date has auctioned more than nine tonnes of olive oil and plans to market 4,500 litres under ‘Raj Olive’ at GRAM through Rajasthan Olive Cultivation limited (ROCl)- a venture of the State Government, India-based Finolex Plasson Industries, and Indolive Industries of Israel.

Rajasthan’s tryst with olives began in 2008 with 1.12 lakh saplings brought from Israel and grown here. The saplings were planted in 182 hectares of Government farms in seven agri- climatic zones  Bassi, Bakalia, Santhu, Barore, Tinkirudi, lunkaransar and Bsabasina villages.

“After eight years, cultivation has spread across 800 hectares in the state  and we will be launching India’s first indigenously-produced olive oil brand,” ROCl managing director Yogesh Verma said.

“The state took help from Israel to start cultivations because Rajasthan shared similar climatic conditions. Seven varieties were planted in the farms. Currently our fruits have oil content of more than 14 per cent, which meets international standards,” he said.

ROCl started transferring saplings to farmers in 2009 and till date has produce 11,574 kg of olive oil with Ganganagar, Bikaner, Hanumangarh and Nagore districts being the largest producers.

Rajasthan has seen a growing demand for olive cultivation among farmers with the fruit giving higher returns per hectare, besides the subsidies they get after the Government declared it the state’s ‘first plantation crop’.

“Demand for olive farming is gradually increasing. While traditional crops like bajra and wheat fetch farmers less than Rs 1 lakh annually, olives can give three to four times,” Verma said. Sitaram Yadav, farm manager at lunkaransar, said,

“Moreover, the plants can survive difficult conditions. Hence, even arid and saline conditions in Rajasthan are apt for the plants growth.”

“We are planning to increase cultivation to 5,000 hectares keeping in mind the future demand for the oil,” Verma said.

According to figures with the ROCl, India currently imports 14,500 metric tones of olive oil from countries like Spain, Italy and Greece, and the bottled varieties of extra virgin and pomace olive oil cost between Rs 700 and Rs 1,000 a litre.

“Though the price of olive oil depends on international rates, we can assure that indigenously-produced oil will be much cheaper than those imported,” Verma said.

At the Centre of Excellence for Agriculture at Bassi, the state has embarked on developing olive tea in four flavours- mint, ginger, tulsi and lemon.