Hi there! My name is Ceilidh (pronounced "KAY-lee") Meo and I've been an olive grower and processor for over fifteen years. Along with my husband Charles, and a few of our small scale olive producer friends, we're starting a not-for-profit co-operative for small scale olive growers with up to 3000 trees under management. We're currently working towards incorporation, with the goal for registration to be completed in the next couple of weeks. It's been an 18 month process to get to this point, so the whole steering committee is REALLY excited to be so close to our achievement!

For the last five years, Charles and I have organised and processed the community production of the urban olives into oil for growers in and around Bendigo, Echuca and other towns in central Victoria. We also work closely with CERES Environmental Park in Brunswick, Melbourne, to promote and facilitate their "Olives to Oil" program. Our network of small scale growers with whom we work is currently 350+ strong and growing.

So why am I reaching out? Right now, the co-operative processing facility caters for growers who can harvest between 50-200kg of olives per batch, with a maximum throughput of 150kg per hour. Each harvest season, we get enquiries from growers who have more than 200kg of fruit, but less than the 2 tonne minimum many other commercial processors require to process a batch of oil. Where do these growers go? At the moment they are charged a premium for using equipment that is bigger than what is required, which is one of the reasons that the cost of olive oil has risen so much for your household.

Our co-op currently has a time-sensitive opportunity to purchase a mobile olive processing line which can process up to 1 tonne per hour and we need your help to secure this amazing piece of equipment, make small and medium scale growers more cost effective and bring the price of olive oil down!

This full processing facility to set up in a 40ft shipping container, and comes with the truck to move it, and the generator to run it. I've priced a brand new processing line of slightly smaller size (without truck and generator) at $315,000 plus GST, so to get the whole kit and caboodle for $250,000 is a great deal. While the truck is from the 1980s, it still runs well and has a lot of life to give. The generator and processing line are only four years old, with less than 400 operating hours in total, so this line is barely run in, and a great secondhand, cost effective purchase to secure small and medium scale olive oil production capacity into the future.

But we have to act fast! The current owner is holding off on offering the unit on the open market until the end of July to give us time to raise funds to make the purchase. As the co-op is not yet incorporated, we can't just get a bank loan to meet the purchase price and commissioning requirements for the equipment. That's where you all come in. Our goal is to raise $400,000 so that we can bring the mobile processing unit to a town near you!

If we can raise our goal, the funds will be used to inspect the truck condition ($10,000), and if its of suitable standard, to purchase the truck, generator and processing line ($250,000), get it to roadworthy standard ($100,000) and registered for 12 months ($12,424). Truck parts and labour are significantly more specialised and expensive than car servicing, so we've factored in a generous amount for any contingencies. Funds will also be used to upgrade the driver licence for at least four of the co-op members so that we have a driver crew to share responsibility for taking the rig on the road ($3,000 each for training and licence endorsement, $12,000). The rest of the goal funds will be used to purchase diesel to run the truck and power the generator in the first year of operation so we can get out into the communities to process their oil.

Our plan to go mobile with the olive oil processing is designed to help community groups like CERES and others to increase local food security, protect our environment from the spread of rogue olive trees via bird distributions by reducing the number of abandoned groves around Victoria and fill the gap in the olive oil processing service market for medium scale growers. We also want to expand our capacity to facilitate community pick and process events. For example, by having access to this mobile press, CERES would save $11,000 each year just in trucking fees to get the urban olives from Melbourne to their current processor network! Not to mention the additional savings of processing fees, which can be upwards of $25,000 per year.

While this fundraiser is for a co-operatively owned asset, the benefits to the broader community are clear to see. I'd love to get your support to make this dream a reality!