The people behind the oil

The olive oil industry has a labour problem. In large-scale production across the Mediterranean, the people who pick the fruit are often among the most poorly paid and least visible participants in the supply chain. We think about this. We think it matters. And we do something about it — not because it makes good copy, but because it is the only way we are willing to operate.

A community that comes back.

We find most of our day workers the way that things have always been found in small communities — through word of mouth. People who have worked the harvest before tell people they know. A team builds over time. There is no agency, no contractor, no intermediary taking a cut. Just people who know the work, know the family, and choose to come back.

Fabio Moscarda.

Behind the picking team is Fabio Moscarda — Dino's younger brother, and the person who makes the logistics of the harvest actually work. Before the pickers arrive each morning, Fabio has already laid out the nets. When equipment needs attention, Fabio fixes it. When the harvester batteries need charging overnight so they are ready at dawn, that is Fabio. A mechanical and technical wizard who is as non-stop during harvest season as anyone on the team, and whose contribution to the Taronco runs year-round, not just in October.

We prioritise Croatian workers — when we can get them.

Our preference is always to work with local Croatian pickers from the surrounding area. The difficulty is timing. The olive harvest falls in October, right at the end of Istria's tourist season — and the local workforce has spent the previous four months working flat out in hotels, restaurants, boats and bars to keep one of Croatia's most visited regions running. By the time the olives are ready, most of them are taking a thoroughly well-earned rest, and we would not presume to begrudge them that. When local workers are available and willing, we are always glad to have them. When they are not, we understand entirely.

Workers from Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines — choosing to be here.

Just outside Galizana, a short distance from the Taronco, there is a small industrial area with manufacturing facilities employing migrant workers — largely from Nepal, Bangladesh, Indonesia and the Philippines. These workers are here legally, housed in decent accommodation nearby, and treated well by their employers. They earn the legal minimum wage for their factory work, which is a fair wage by Croatian standards.

During harvest — a week to ten days each October — some of them quietly take a few days of leave to come and work with us instead. The reasons are not hard to understand. It is hard physical work, but it is outdoors, in one of the most beautiful working landscapes in Istria, with a team that is genuinely good company. Tatjana cooks lunch every day — proper Istrian food, made from scratch. There are cold beers at the end of the day. And the day rate is meaningfully higher than minimum wage.

Nobody is recruiting vulnerable people or exploiting a power imbalance. These are workers with stable employment who are choosing, for a few days a year, to do something different — because the conditions are better, the pay is better, and the work, despite being harder on the body, feels different when you are doing it in an olive grove in October sunshine.

The same oil that goes into the bottle goes onto the lunch table.

That line is on the label because space on a bottle is limited and those words carry the most weight. It is a commitment, not a claim. The people who picked your oil were paid fairly for skilled work. We think that is worth saying plainly, and worth remembering when you open the bottle.

Our harvesting uses a combination of hand-picking and battery-powered electric harvesting poles — low-intervention tools that extend human reach without bruising the fruit or damaging the tree. The spirit of the label is accurate: every olive is picked with care, by a team paid above minimum wage.

How the harvest is run, in brief.