The OP's question was aimed at a Dominican production and that - I am certain - would surpass other country's production costs. :tired:
With olives usually it is not feasible to build a production facility for a relatively small olive yield. Usually production is better done by cooperatives with large facilities. Unless one wants to press the olives for oil - mechanical or with hand presses. This makes the yield somewhat lower than in other olive producing countries, so, the numbers begin to suffer somewhat. So, for the DR, if there is feasible land in the mountains (land that goats like .. stony, on a slope and with that all important temperature differential), olives would have to be shipped to a production facility for oil.
The best one could do locally, given the challenges of power and labor, would be to pickle the olive crop and sell it bottled or in large quantities for olive bars and to restaurants. The DR demand for this is too low to make it feasible, so it would have to be an export product.
Or, what I've seen done very successfully with crops such as coffee, is if one develops a marketplace and sells into that specifically .. Something like hand-pressed olive oil. There would be a market for a product that is unique .. again, cost of going to market would be high.
Anyway, I wish I could spend the next five years simply investigating suitable niche and unique marketplaces for the DR's farming produce, as well as looking at new and unique crops. Way better than worrying about stuff like biofuel ... Food production is where it is at!
