California's olive crop should rebound this year.

 State and federal farm officials estimate growers could produce 180,000 tons, roughly 2 1/2 times the 2011 harvest of 71,200 tons.

 Of the total production, the report from the California Department of Food and Agriculture and U.S. National Agricultural Statistics Service estimates 94,000 tons will be utilized for canned table olives, while the remaining 86,000 tons are expected to be harvested for oil or specialty products.

 The bigger crop should be welcomed by the industry, said Dan Flynn, executive director of the University of California, Davis, Olive Center.

 "It's good news, definitely, for the growers who suffered through a lot of bad crops over the last five years," he said Monday by telephone.

 While olives tend to produce heavier crops every other year, California saw two short crops of 67,000 tons in 2008 and 46,000 tons in 2009, before reaping a record 195,000 tons in 2010. Of course, that was followed by last year's short crop.

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