Extreme Weather Ravages Olive Groves Across Greece, Undermining 2025 Output

Summary

Severe weather, includ­ing hail­storms and tor­ren­tial rain, dev­as­tated olive groves in Greece this year, com­pound­ing exist­ing chal­lenges faced by the olive oil sec­tor. Climate change, includ­ing warm­ing tem­per­a­tures and decreased pre­cip­i­ta­tion, is exac­er­bat­ing the dif­fi­cul­ties faced by farm­ers in the region, with sig­nif­i­cant losses reported across mul­ti­ple olive-pro­duc­ing areas.

The woes of the Greek olive oil sec­tor deep­ened this year as a bout of severe weather dashed hopes for even a mod­er­ate yield in sev­eral pro­duc­ing areas, com­pound­ing ongo­ing cli­mate- and pest-related pres­sures reported ear­lier in the sea­son.

The storm sys­tem, named ​“Adel” by mete­o­rol­o­gists, swept from west to east over two days, unleash­ing tor­ren­tial rain, squalls and hail­storms that struck olive trees and other crops with unusual force.

Powerful hail­storms pounded olive groves across much of the Peloponnese, dam­ag­ing branches and knock­ing olives to the ground.

In the Ilia pre­fec­ture of west­ern Peloponnese, the area of Pinia was among the hard­est hit. Local media reported that farm­ers who had not yet har­vested suf­fered an almost com­plete loss of fruit.

Growers in Ilia faced a sim­i­lar blow in autumn 2023, when hail­storms dis­rupted what had been expected to be a robust olive oil yield in the region.

In Messenia, one of Greece’s most impor­tant olive oil-pro­duc­ing regions, chest­nut-sized hail­stones struck high-slope groves, car­pet­ing orchards with fallen olives.

“It took 3 – 4 hours for the hail to melt,” said Petros Athanasopoulos, an olive farmer from Kalogerorahi. ​“It looked like it had snowed.”

Athanasopoulos said he had suc­cess­fully pro­tected his Koroneiki olives from pests this sea­son, only to see the storm sweep away much of his crop.

Nearby, farmer Nikos Giannopoulos esti­mated a 20-per­cent loss of his Kalamon table olives, which were ready for har­vest. ​“I wasn’t expect­ing a robust har­vest this year,” he said. ​“Still, we will have to make do with what’s left.”

Hail can inflict long-term dam­age by injur­ing branches and leav­ing wounds that allow pathogens to enter the tree, increas­ing the risk of dis­ease.

Significant losses were also reported in the Messenian areas of Manesis, Trikorfo, Sterna and Aristomenis.

In neigh­bor­ing Laconia, storm Adel caused exten­sive dam­age to olive trees in the south­west, par­tic­u­larly around Monemvasia.

“The pro­duc­ers’ labor has fallen to the ground,” said Nelly Koutsandrea, head of the Nomia com­mu­nity, where the storm had a severe impact on local groves.

Nomia, a region dom­i­nated by olive cul­ti­va­tion, depends heav­ily on olive oil pro­duc­tion for local liveli­hoods. ​“The blow is eco­nomic, social and emo­tional, all at the same time,” Koutsandrea added.

Authorities urged farm­ers to file com­pen­sa­tion claims with ELGA, the country’s agri­cul­tural insur­ance agency.

Across the Aegean, the storm also bat­tered olive groves on Lesbos and Samos. Producers in Karlovasi, on Samos, said the hail ​“destroyed hun­dreds of olive trees,” wip­ing out a year’s work within min­utes.

Greece has faced a suc­ces­sion of extreme weather events in recent years, which mete­o­rol­o­gists link to cli­mate change.

In September 2023, storm Daniel flooded exten­sive areas of cen­tral Greece and caused severe dam­age to olive trees in the Peloponnese and on Evia.

Beyond storms, repeated heat­waves and wild­fires have com­pounded pres­sures on farm­ers, cre­at­ing increas­ingly pre­car­i­ous con­di­tions for olive cul­ti­va­tion.

The Mediterranean is warm­ing 20 per­cent faster than the global aver­age, accord­ing to sci­en­tists.

New research pre­sented at the COP30 cli­mate con­fer­ence in Brazil last month iden­ti­fied the Mediterranean as a global cli­mate hotspot. Findings from the lat­est sci­en­tific assess­ment show regional tem­per­a­tures have risen about 1.5°C above pre-indus­trial lev­els and could climb as much as 5.6°C by 2100. A pro­jected 10- to 30-per­cent decline in pre­cip­i­ta­tion by century’s end is expected to place fur­ther strain on agri­cul­ture.