Following in the footsteps of vineyard sharing concepts like WineShare and St. Helena Winery's Adopt-A-Vine, Nudo lets customers adopt an olive tree.
Founded by two former British television producers who decided to ditch the rat race for a farm in rural Italy, Nudo is an olive grove that offers trees for adoption. Customers pick their own tree from one of eight sections of the grove. Each plot of land is described in detail; for example, Il Sogno: "Reached via the (friendly) farmer’s field next door and a small bramble forest, the trees here are more au naturel but seem happy that way."
For GBP 60 (USD 110/EUR 90) per year, plus shipping, customers receive all the produce from their adopted tree. Besides an adoption certificate and booklet about the tree, this includes a spring package containing extra virgin olive oil, and an autumn package of lemon olive oil and handmade soaps. (To be precise, the oil doesn't come from the actual tree, but is a share of the crop produced by a section of trees.) So far, 548 of the 881 trees have been adopted.
The exact amount of oil depends on the year's harvest, but each tree normally produces between one and three litres per year. Which makes for fairly expensive olive oil, but of course the charming story is a large part of the deal. Not only can customers drizzle their salads with oil from their very own tree on an Italian hillside, but if they decide to visit the grove, adopters are offered a picnic under the shade of their knotty olive.
Everyone benefits: consumers can connect to the source of their (organic) food; new, entrepreneurial farmers gain a steady income; and small scale, artisanal farming helps keep the countryside looking quintessentially Italian.
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Interesting marketing concepts. Success will be mostly dependent on creating trust with potential clients. An issue to be addressed is the large range of potential outputs. Recommend a certificate and picture and guarantee of equitable distribution to go with current offer. Good luck.
adopt a vine, an olive tree or a Fijian Island - OR - as we are doing - a new Single Malt distillery.
Island - http://www.tribewanted.com
Whisky - http://www.whisky.co.uk
James, great stuff, we'll cover whiskey.co.uk soon.
About tribewanted: see our posting from a few weeks ago:
http://www.springwise.com/tourism_travel/tribewanted/
Good luck with the business!
If you can adopt a polar bear then why not an olive tree? I love it! Our job at www.everythingolive.com is to introduce visitors to the health benefits and beauty benefits of olive oil. Maybe adopting an olive tree can be one more step in the education process.
A bit harder to travel to ;-) but Yachana Gourmet, a fair-trade chocolate brand encourages consumer to adopt a chocalate tree. Along with your Certificate of Adoption, they'll send you two bags of our their Fair Trade Yachana Jungle Chocolate. Furthermore, participants in the Adopt a Chocolate Tree program receive a 10% discount off of the regular price of Yachana Lodge tours during the one year term of the adoption. More at: www.yachanagourmet.com/adopt_tree.htm
Didi Gonzales | June 1, 2006 5:37 PM