Nick and Brenda Wilkinson bought the RIO LARGO Olive Estate in the Scherpenheuwel Valley in 2010. Nick is a chartered accountant with a reputation for transforming ailing agricultural businesses, and Brenda is a marketing specialist. Their combined experience of more than 20 years working in Central and Southern Africa was put to excellent use to establish this award-winning estate.
Nick explains: “South African olive oils can compete with the best of the best, as evidenced by us winning top awards in international olive oil competitions across the globe. We are a relatively small producer, but we have modern processing equipment and relatively new groves planted to the best modern cultivars. Most olives are handpicked (cleaner than machine harvested) and processed within hours to achieve high quality. Our dry climate, with hot days and cool nights, coupled with modern irrigation systems, makes for an ideal platform for producing high-quality fruit.”
When asked what they intend to do in the future to stay up to date quality-wise, Nick replied: “We will keep abreast of trends across the globe, but having won awards consistently since 2010, we do not intend to let our consumers down. The plan is to increase our footprint both locally and internationally, and consistently produce world-class premium quality olive oil.”
We asked Nick where he saw South African olive oil on the global stage, and he replied: “For me, it is difficult to say, but South Africa has 11 oil producers that are part of the Top 500 Olive Oils of the World in the FLOS OLEI Guide from Italy, which pretty much sums it up”. South Africa’s position globally was self-evident in the stellar results achieved by producers like RIO LARGO, which were competing with olive oils from around the globe.
RIO LARGO can be found in South Africa and a few countries abroad, including the USA, Dubai, Germany, The Netherlands, Belgium, and Japan.
Contact person: Nick and Brenda Wilkinson
Email address: info@riolargo.co.za
Contact number: 082 688 0578
Website address: https://www.riolargo.co.za/
Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Rio-Largo-Olive-Estate/1104523726259747
Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/riolargooliveestate/