Death of Philip Costa
2005-05-05
A WELL-KNOWN Paarl olive producer, Philip Costa (84), passed away peacefully on Sunday after a short illness.
He had been a resident of Paarl since 1925, having completed his schooling at Paarl Boys' High, where he was Dux student in 1936.
Philip devoted his entire working life to the South African olive and olive oil industry, following in the footsteps of his father, Ferdinando, who pioneered the commercial SA olive industry in the early part of the previous century.
Based on the original family farm Nervi in Paarl, Philip was instrumental in producing the first commercially available SA bottled green table olives in 1942, followed by canned black olives in 1952.
He was a founder member of the South African Olive Growers’ Association, established in 1956, and served on the executive of this association continuously from its inception in 1956 until 2002.
He was responsible for numerous improvements in SA olive and olive oil processing technology over the years.
He pioneered the propagation of self-rooted olive plants from semi-hardwood leafy cuttings in 1957, pioneered commercial mist propagation of olive cuttings in SA in the early 70s, and installed the first fully automated continuous olive oil extraction plant in SA in 1984.
He travelled widely throughout the olive growing world, attending many international conferences on olive culture, studying the cultural practices and industrial processes used in all major (and many minor) olive producing countries. His final trip, in 2004, was to Syria, the birthplace of olive cultivation by man.
He had been active in the family business until early 2005.
He is survived by his wife, Nora, brother Nino (82), sister Eugenia (Bosman) (86), children, Guido, Carlo, Ines (Barker) and Julio, and his grandchildren.
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