Svalbard Seed Vault to Receive First Olive Seeds in Bid to Protect Genetic Diversity

Summary

The Svalbard Global Seed Vault will receive olive seeds for the first time, aim­ing to pro­tect olive genetic diver­sity for future gen­er­a­tions, in an ini­tia­tive pro­moted by the International Olive Council and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. The seeds, col­lected from var­i­ous olive vari­eties, will be stored in air­tight con­tain­ers at the Vault’s stor­age tem­per­a­ture of ‑18°C, with the first batch sched­uled for deposit in February 2026.

Olive seeds will be deposited for the first time in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault, the world’s largest facil­ity ded­i­cated to the long-term con­ser­va­tion of agri­cul­tural seeds, in an effort to pro­tect olive genetic diver­sity for future gen­er­a­tions. The deposit will mark the first time the olive species has been for­mally intro­duced to the Vault, offi­cially known as the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.

Promoted by the International Olive Council (IOC) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the ini­tia­tive was launched by the con­sor­tium behind the European H2020 GEN4OLIVE project. It involves sev­eral research insti­tu­tions, includ­ing the Universities of Córdoba and Granada, the Spanish National Research Council, the National Institute for Agricultural and Food Research and Technology and the Centre for Plant Genetic Resources.

“For the first time in his­tory, olive seeds are being deposited in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault. This is more than a sym­bolic act – it is a prac­ti­cal safe­guard for the extra­or­di­nary diver­sity of olive vari­eties selected over thou­sands of years,” IOC Executive Director Jaime Lillo told Olive Oil Times. ​“By pro­tect­ing this genetic her­itage against nat­ural dis­as­ters, con­flicts or global crises, we are ensur­ing that future gen­er­a­tions will con­tinue to enjoy olive oil and the cul­tural legacy it rep­re­sents.”

The IOC said the effort comes as the ongo­ing loss of genetic diver­sity col­lides with esca­lat­ing pres­sures from cli­mate change. The threats, it added, extend beyond extreme shifts in tem­per­a­ture and rain­fall to the spread of pests and dis­eases.

Following a 2024 agree­ment between the IOC, the FAO and the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, the World Olive Germplasm Bank of Córdoba (BGMO-UCO) was incor­po­rated into the frame­work of the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.

The IOC said the step strength­ens the olive tree’s place within major inter­na­tional mech­a­nisms that gov­ern the con­ser­va­tion and use of plant genetic resources.

About 1,000 olive seeds will be secured in the facil­ity on the island of Spitsbergen in Norway’s Arctic arch­i­pel­ago of Svalbard. The Vault is man­aged by the Nordic Genetic Resource Center (NordGen).

According to the IOC, prepa­ra­tion for the deposit required a multi-phase sci­en­tific process. Seeds were gath­ered from open-pol­li­nated trees in the BGMO-UCO col­lec­tion and from wild trees across the Iberian Peninsula to broaden rep­re­sen­ta­tion of both cul­ti­vated and wild olive pop­u­la­tions.

The BGMO-UCO con­serves more than 900 olive vari­eties from IOC mem­ber coun­tries, includ­ing Albania, Algeria, Cyprus, Croatia, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Portugal, Syria, Tunisia and Türkiye.

After selec­tion, the fruits were processed in the lab­o­ra­tory under a pro­to­col devel­oped by the uni­ver­si­ties of Granada and Córdoba. The pro­ce­dure includes pit (endo­carp) extrac­tion, removal of organic residues and an air-dry­ing phase.

The seeds were then trans­ferred to the Centre for Plant Genetic Resources, which will retain a safety dupli­cate. Seeds des­tined for the Vault were sealed in ded­i­cated air­tight con­tain­ers at –18°C ( – 0.4°F), the Vault’s stor­age tem­per­a­ture, and pre­pared for trans­port.

NordGen staff will coor­di­nate the recep­tion and deposit of the con­tain­ers in under­ground cham­bers, where they will be stored for the long term. Germination tests will be con­ducted to assess via­bil­ity, and the IOC said the col­lec­tion will be mon­i­tored every ten years.

To main­tain the low tem­per­a­tures required for long-term preser­va­tion, the Vault can con­tinue oper­at­ing dur­ing elec­tri­cal sys­tem fail­ures by rely­ing on the nat­ural Arctic per­mafrost and addi­tional refrig­er­a­tion equip­ment.

The IOC said the first batch of seeds is sched­uled to be deposited between February 23 and 27, 2026. A del­e­ga­tion that includes IOC rep­re­sen­ta­tives will par­tic­i­pate in a cer­e­mony mark­ing the olive’s first entry into the Vault.