An olive grove near Ballarat has become the first farm in Australia to earn the ‘regenerative’ certification.
Manna Hill Estate at Mt Egerton was recently audited by the European lead auditor, gaining the special status which requires minimal soil disturbance, integrating animals and enhancing biodiversity.
Campbell Mercer from Manna Hill says it’s a proud milestone after planting 2500 trees back in 2002.
“Right from the get-go we were really focused on getting organic certification.”
“We didn’t want to use synthetic fertilisers, we weren’t interested in using pesticides and herbicides.”
“As a result of that we got our Organic certification quite early on and have continued with that to this day,” Mr. Mercer said.
The process appears to be working with Manna Hill Estate gold medaling in 2020, 2021 and 2022 at the Australian International Olive Wards for their extra virgin olive oil.
