Who We Are
We’re people that like food. Same as you. But we think it’s safe to say that we’re doing a lot more than most to make food even better. We can’t tell a story in every drop without doing everything right. That includes what goes on in our boardrooms, our factory floors, and between each other as people.
Aside from the technicalities, our company culture is a collaborative, understanding and mutually loved endeavor. Everyone’s interested in what we do; they enjoy each other’s company and work ethic; and we all have our goals laid out in front of us at Rammah.
Where The Magic Happens
No matter how expensive or expansive our facilities may be; it all starts with the seed. We put a fair bit of effort into our cultivar selection. We can’t make the best oils in town without the best olives you can get your hands on, after all.
We’re based in the beautiful and criminally underrated town of Sadat City. A lot can be said for where we are, like the simple fact that it’s a pretty strategic location in the regional olive oil industry. Simply put, we’re based in the biggest concentration of olive trees in all of Egypt. This nearly miraculous little slice of Egypt brings together the combined fertility and flavor of Alexandria, Natrun Valley, and Marsa Matrouh.
Besides our main base, we also operate in the Minya, West Asyut, and Banu Suif areas; the veritable hub of Egyptian olive oil production. This helps us get the best quality and quantity of olives that Egyptian soil has to offer.
Through our industry experience throughout the years, we’ve gained the ability to identify the quality of an olive, and in turn, its oil at a distance and at a glance. Olive trees are many and varied; our experience allows us to more thoroughly vet what can give us the best possible product.
The Process at A Glance
The basic principle of the whole olive oil production thing is to squeeze as much juice out of the little treasures. We make sure to harvest everything manually, and we put extra care into separating all the stuff that isn’t olives, from the actual olives.
Once our start is as good as it can be, it goes into the processing… process. All that wonderful work we put into our little, juicy gems is further amplified down the line. Our olives are cleaned, sorted, crushed, filtered a fair few times to make sure we’re dealing with nothing but the juice.
After the messy work is sorted, our (way too) extra virgin olive oil at this stage undergoes rigorous screening and testing by our dedicated Quality Assurance and Quality control teams. Our labs test for all sorts of allergens to eliminate any undesirable experiences. We didn’t earn those ISO 22000 and 9001 certifications for nothing; we make sure that our family’s product is nothing but healthy and pure for your consumption.
More Technical Bits
We take what we do seriously. No more is this apparent than our choice of equipment, gear, machinery, and all manner of complicated technical jargon. You can’t be the best without doing your best, and our production line is ever evolving with the best that European ingenuity has to offer.
Our Choice of Machinery for our Olive Olive Plant
Turkish manufacturer Polat Makina Sanayi A.S provides our factory with cutting-edge olive oil treatment technology. We use the company’s PMS 470/PX olive oil machinery plant, comprising 9 phases in total.
Phase 1 – The Conveyor
Once we gather only the finest olives that our unique cultivars can produce, and after a lengthy initial QA analysis; we ship everything over to the plant. First off, it all falls into the Conveyor, which is essentially a giant escalator of sorts taking the olives down to a banker. The olives then pass through the Leaf Aspirator, which diligently separates all the light material we don’t want, such as leaves, grass, debris, and anything that isn’t a Rammah olive. Once this is done, it’s onto the washing phase
Phase 2 – The Washing Machine
Hygiene and food safety begin from the moment we plant our olives, to the moment they reach our plant. Once the Conveyor transports the selected olives further down, they are greeted by our friendly olive washer. This system is designed in a way which provides continuous water circulation within the machine, allowing water to fill the chamber and thoroughly wash each olive. It’s entirely inox (AISI 304), and has enough power to wash 4-6 tons of olives in a single hour.
Phase 3 – The Olive Feeding Conveyor
Another conveyor? Little did you know; the universe runs on conveyor belts, Excel sheets, coffee machines, and angry emails. Business aside, this particular conveyor shuttles our olives up to the next phase of the process of creating liquid memories (AKA good olive oil). It’s a bit rough, though.
Phase 4 – The Paste Prepare Unit
Once all the washing up is done, our olives move over to the Paste Prepare Unit, beginning with the crushing phase. The olives are firmly crushed and then fed through the Continue Mixer. It’s essentially a giant sorting, mixing and (say it slowly at first) homogenization machine. Basically, it mixes everything up, heats it with warm water, and works on achieving the ideal oil separation density in about 35 to 46 minutes. This is all necessary for improving the overall olive oil yield.
Phase 5 – The Decanter
Once the initial wet work is done, our (extremely) virgin olive oil is then passed through the Decanter. This very complex and frankly terrifyingly efficient piece of tech ultimately removes all the things that don’t contribute to the quality of the olive oil. This means all the leftover crude paste, water, debris, and anything else from the oil. This, again, enhances overall yield, and through a variety of nozzles, sieves and rotating drums, the result is a much more refined olive oil ready for further processing. We’re skimming over a lot of technical stuff, but really, we’re just trying to spare you the pain of science.
Phase 6 – The Separator
A very daunting title for such a cheerful and helpful little (big) machine. The Separator, as its name may suggest, works on separating even more minute debris and unwanted materials from the processed (or rather processing) oil. How does it do this? Why, with the magic of centrifugation, of course. Nobody likes sediments, especially all of us at Rammah Olive Oils.
Phase 7, 8 and 9 – Trade Secrets
What, did you think we were going to tell you everything? We’d love to, but then we’d be out of business.
Suffice it to say that our production line is an evolving process
The Result
What you get out of all this science and hard work is the best extra virgin olive oil that Egypt is going to experience for a long and flavorful time. Our lines are strong, and we keep thinking up more ways to get the most out of each olive. And at the end of the day, we just want everyone involved to feel good about the world we live in, and the country we belong to.
If we’ve managed to catch your attention this far, perhaps you’d like to see the rest of our blog? Yes. You do.