Production of olives in Chitlang, located in the northern part of Makwanpur district is expected to fall by a whopping 85 percent this year due to excess rainfall.

Production of olives had suffered last year as well. But the problem at that time was lack of rain, according to Padam Singh Khadka, manager of Himalaya Plantations, which is growing 15 different species of olives on more than 10 hectares of land. “This year, it’s because of incessant rainfall from mid-April,” he said. Olive needs both rain and sunshine to grow properly.

This year, the weather-induced problem resulted in only 200 olive trees bearing fruit while the remaining 2,100 trees failed to bear fruits at Himalaya Plantations.

This is expected to hit olive oil production, which is expected to hover around 80 litres this year, Khadka said, adding, “The company had produced about 450 litres of olive oil two years ago.”

Chitlang has a favourable environment and climate for olive farming. Yet, Himalaya Plantations—which has been farming olives for more than two decades—is experiencing setback after setback for the last two years, negatively affecting production.

Last year, the company saw water sources drying up which hit olive production.

Olive farming is a lucrative business as the oil extracted from the fruit fetches a good return on investment and also provides employment opportunities to many in Chitlang. “The oil

produced by Himalaya Plantations is sold at Rs3,000 per litre,” said Khadka, “We don’t have any difficulty in finding buyers for our olive oil as it is high in demand.”

Olives grow from October to November. Raw olives are used to make pickles while olive oil is extracted from the ripe ones. The fruits must be processed within 2-4 hours of plucking to extract oil of good quality, according to Khadka. To produce a litre of oil, 10kg of olives are required.

Himalaya Plantations started commercial olive farming with the aim of exporting oil to the international market.  It is estimated that Nepal imports about 5,000 litres of olive oil every year.