Olive Cultivation Rebounds Slightly in Greece, But Long-Term Decline Persists

Olive cultivation is holding steady in Greece even as other major crops lose ground, according to new government data.

The annual agricultural survey from ELSTAT, the Greek Statistical Authority, released last month, found that land used for staple crops such as maize, cotton and vines shrank in 2024. Land reserved for olives, however, ticked up marginally, rising 0.4 percent from 692,480 hectares in 2023 to 695,050 hectares in 2024.

The figures confirm that olives remain by far the most popular crop among Greece’s permanent plantings, covering roughly ten times as much land as grapevines or stone fruit trees.

Olive groves now account for around a fifth of the country’s total cultivated land, and a third of all Greek farmers are involved in some form of olive tree cultivation.

Experts say the 2024 figures confirm a long-running trend: Greek farmers are abandoning traditional arable crops, including grain, tobacco and corn, in favor of more profitable tree crops, chiefly olives.

Still, a longer view tells a more complicated story. Over the past decade, the total land area reserved for olive groves in Greece contracted from 747,660 hectares in 2015 to 695,050 hectares in 2024, a decline of more than 7 percent.

Olive groves shrank every year from 2015 onward, until the 0.4 percent uptick in 2024 finally interrupted the downward trend.

“The Greek olive oil sector is in decline, and state intervention is absent,” said Sotiris Salis, head of the Greek association of nursery growers.

“Most olive farmers in Greece are of an older generation, and there is no sign of a younger generation taking over,” he added. “Some farmers may switch to olive cultivation, but rising costs have become a deterring factor. We see olive groves remaining unattended across the whole country.”

The decline in olive-covered land mirrors a broader retreat in Greece’s agricultural sector, driven by weak demographics, inadequate farmer training, high production costs and increasingly erratic weather.

Analysts estimate that around 200,000 Greek farmers aged 65 or older will need to be replaced by younger successors in the coming years if the sector is to remain competitive.

“The Greek agricultural sector is at a true turning point,” researchers from the Dianeosis research and policy institute in Athens wrote in a 2026 analysis of the sector.

“The country has genuine advantages: unique soil and climate conditions, significant biodiversity, high-quality products with protected designations of origin, and a long tradition in specific crops and livestock farming,” the report noted.

“On the other hand, those advantages do not constitute adequate conditions for rural development, as the productive base is aging, the land remains fragmented, training is inadequate, infrastructure is lacking, climatic pressures are intensifying, and the state is unable to provide a stable environment for development in the agricultural sector.”