Qualifications: Agricultural Engineer; Olive and Olive Oil Post Graduate Specialist
About: Leandro Ravetti graduated as an Agricultural Engineer in Argentina achieving the second highest academic score in the country. He worked for the National Institute of Agricultural Technology in olive production research and advised many of the country’s largest olive developments from 1995 until he moved to Australia in 2001.
Leandro has also studied and worked as an invited researcher at the Olive Growing Research Institute of Perugia, Italy and at different Governmental Olive Institutes in Andalusia, Spain where he completed a postgraduate degree on olive growing.
In Australia, Leandro leads the Modern Olives technical team, which provides horticultural and olive specific technical advice to most of the largest olive groves and olive oil processing plants in the country. These companies represent more than 70% of the Australian olive industry by production. Leandro has also been involved as adviser, researcher and invited speaker in most other new olive industries such as New Zealand, Japan, Peru, South Africa, Chile and USA.
Leandro was an alternate director of the Australian Olive Association between 2009 and 2012. During that period, Leandro covered the position of Drafting Leader for the new Australian Standard for Olive Oil (AS 5264-2011) receiving the 2011 Standards Award for outstanding contribution to standardisation in Australia.
Leandro has been Executive Director of Cobram Estate Olives Limited, Australia’s leading fully integrated olive company since 2005, and was appointed as joint-CEO in 2021. As part of his role with Cobram Estate Olives, Leandro has overseen the production of multi award winning oils for the company’s flagship brand, Cobram Estate, including a large number of gold medals, best in class and best in show trophies in national and international competitions such as New York, Los Angeles, Olive Japan, Australian Olive Association, etc.
Research/Areas of Interest: Olive growing, olive physiology, mechanisation, olive oil quality
