Climate change is forcing olive oil producers to look for solutions

In the face of climate warming, which affects crops and leads to higher prices, olive oil producers are redoubling their efforts to develop solutions, in communication with the scientific community, including improving irrigation, selecting new varieties, and moving crops to locations that are more resistant to the consequences of climate change.
Jaime Lillo, Executive Director of the International Olive Council, said on the occasion of the first World Olive Oil Conference, which was held this week in the Spanish capital, Madrid, with the participation of 300 different parties, that “climate change has become a reality, and we must adapt to it.”

A painful “reality” for the entire sector, as for two years it has been facing a decline in production on an unprecedented scale, against the backdrop of heat waves and severe drought in the main producing countries, such as Spain, Greece, and Italy.
According to the National Olive Council, global production fell from 3.42 million tons in 2021-2022 to 2.57 million tons in 2022-2023, a decrease of about a quarter.
Given the data sent by the organization’s 37 member states, production is expected to witness a new decline in 2023-2024 to 2.41 million tons.
This situation has led to a significant increase in prices, ranging from 50% to 70%, depending on the varieties concerned, over the past year. In Spain, which supplies half of the world’s olive oil, prices have tripled since the beginning of 2021.

“complex scenarios”
“The tension in the markets and the rise in prices are a very delicate test for our sector,” said Pedro Barato, president of the Professional Olive Oil Organization in Spain. “We have never seen this situation before,” he explained.
“We must prepare for increasingly complex scenarios that will allow us to confront the climate crisis,” he said, likening the situation facing olive farmers to the “turmoil” experienced by the banking sector during the 2008 financial crisis.
In fact, the outlook in this area is not very encouraging.
Currently, more than 90% of the world’s olive oil production comes from the Mediterranean basin. However, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, this region, described as a “hotspot” for climate change, is warming 20% ​​faster than the global average.
This situation could affect global production in the long term. “We are facing a delicate situation,” says Yiorgos Koupouris, a researcher at the Greek Olive Institute, which is pushing for “a change in the way we treat trees and soil.”
“The olive tree is one of the plants that adapts best to a dry climate,” explains Jaime Lillo. “But in cases of severe drought, it activates mechanisms to protect itself and stops producing. To obtain olives, a minimum amount of water is needed.”

Dripping and new plantings
Among the solutions proposed during the conference in Madrid was genetic research: hundreds of varieties of olive trees have been tested for years in order to identify the ones most adapted to climate change, based in particular on their flowering date.
The aim is to identify “varieties that need fewer hours of cold in winter and are more resistant to the stress caused by water shortages at certain key times” of the year, such as spring, explains Juan Antonio Polo, who is responsible for technological issues at the International Olive Council.
Another major area that scientists are working on is irrigation, which the sector wants to develop by storing rainwater, recycling wastewater or desalinating seawater, while improving its “efficiency”.
This means abandoning “surface irrigation” and generalizing “drip irrigation systems,” which deliver water “directly to the roots of the trees” and avoid waste, according to Kostas Khartzoulakis, of the Greek Olive Institute.
To adapt to the new climate situation, a third, more radical approach is also being considered: abandoning production in areas that could become unsuitable because they are too desert, and developing it in other areas.
This phenomenon has “already begun”, albeit on a limited scale, with the emergence of “new farms” in areas that were until now foreign to olive tree cultivation, according to Jaime Lillo, who says he is “optimistic” about the future, despite the challenges facing the sector.
“Thanks to international cooperation, little by little we will be able to find solutions,” Lilo promises.