Family Owned and Operated

Serrado Olive Estate is a family business owned 100% by the de Freitas family.

Vision

Our vision is to produce leading local premium olive products offering consumers an unparalleled quality and a unique taste experience.

Mission

Our goal at Serrado Olive Estate is to provide easy and convenient access to those who are seeking FRESH, authentic, premium quality, and artisan Extra Virgin Olive Oils for their kitchens and families.

 

Our family gives particular attention to the extraction process, from the tending of the orchard to the bottling of the oil. Being a local family, we seek ways to invest in the local community and have created a new agricultural produce in the Eastern Free State, which is labour intensive and has led to the creation of job opportunities.
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About the Farm

Serrado Olive Estate is situated on the farms De Luc, Craberrie and Wolfkop in the Eastern Free State at an altitude of 1,570m. We have severe winters, with temperatures dipping as low as -7 °C and unpredictable summers making Serrado Olive Estate a pioneer in growing olives in the area.
The olive grove was started in 2007 by Oscar de Freitas being a local farming family, we seek ways to invest in the local community and have created a new labour-intensive agricultural activity in the Eastern Free State, which has led to the creation of job opportunities since we started producing olive oil in 2012, with Serrado being awarded various gold awards over the years.
  • SA Olive 2013 Gold Award (Medium category)
  • SA Olive 2016 Bronze Award (Medium category)
  • SA Olive 2017 Gold Award (Medium category)
  • ABSA Top 10 EVOO 2017
  • SA Olive 2018 Gold Award (Medium category)
  • Sol D'Oro Southern Hemisphere GOLD Award (Medium category)
  • ABSA Top 10  EVOO 2018
  • SA Olive 2019 Silver Award (Medium category)
  • SA Olive 2020 Gold Award (Medium category)
  • The Aurora International Taste Challenge Gold Award

On the 13th of September 2013, a fire in the district destroyed the 45-hectare olive grove losing about 40% of the trees. Due to this tragedy, there was no production in the 2014 year and very little in the 2015 year. Since 2016 the trees have gone from strength to strength resulting in our highest yield thus far in 2017.

Julian de Freitas, the son of Oscar de Freitas, who shares his father’s passion for olive oil has been involved with the production of the olive oil since Serrado started pressing EVOO in 2012. The 2017 harvest surpassed all expectation as the tonnage was far greater than expected given the severe drought that we went through. We look forward to future seasons after a successful 2017 harvest that yielded our record litres produced and the second gold award for our EVOO. We have also won two ABSA Top 10 awards (2017 and 2018).