Olive Cultivation Is Expanding in Georgia

Summary

Georgian olive grow­ing is expand­ing and aims to become a key player in the South Caucasus sec­tor, with about 95% of new groves expected to be in the Kakheti region. Climate change is both a dri­ver and chal­lenge for this expan­sion, with farm­ers work­ing on adapt­ing to water short­ages and other poten­tial impacts while also look­ing to incor­po­rate ancient local olive cul­ti­vars into their pro­duc­tion matrix.

Olive grow­ing in Georgia has expanded to 1,200 hectares and will con­tinue to grow, local experts told the recent International Olive Council (IOC) meet­ing in Tbilisi.

They added that Georgian olive grow­ers are work­ing with imported vari­eties and eval­u­at­ing local ones as they plot the sector’s future.

“Georgia aspires to be one of the key play­ers in the South Caucasus olive sec­tor,” said Abdellatif Ghedira, the IOC’s exec­u­tive direc­tor.

According to data from Juan Vilar Strategic Consultants, Georgia pro­duces about 900 tons of olive oil and 500 tons of table olives per annum.

One of the some­what sur­pris­ing dri­vers that may help Georgia speed up its cur­rent strat­egy of olive grove expan­sion is cli­mate change, as more of the coun­try becomes amenable to olive cul­ti­va­tion.

“In sev­eral areas, pro­jec­tions show that the num­ber of warmer days will increase,” Zviad Bobokashvili, head of the depart­ment of fruit crop research at the Ministry of Agriculture, told Olive Oil Times. ​“In con­trast, we expect a reduc­tion in crit­i­cal win­ter tem­per­a­tures, and it could be pos­si­ble that olive pro­duc­tion will expand in even more areas.”

About 95 per­cent of the new groves are likely to be located in Kakheti, a cen­tral-south east­ern region, where aver­age tem­per­a­tures have risen more rapidly in the last 40 years than in the rest of the coun­try.

However, cli­mate change also pro­vides plenty of chal­lenges for Georgian farm­ers and olive grow­ers.

“For sure, there are, and there will be neg­a­tive impacts, such as lack of rain­fall dur­ing sum­mer months which could lead to an irri­ga­tion deficit of olive plan­ta­tions, impact­ing qual­ity and yields,” Bobokashvili said.

Other chal­lenges come from an increased risk of hail dam­age to the trees, which is also linked to ris­ing tem­per­a­tures. Higher tem­per­a­tures may also facil­i­tate the spread of dis­ease and pests.

“All of this will require more inte­grated plant pro­tec­tion mea­sures,” Bobokashvili said.

Despite its small size – Georgia cov­ers less than 70,000 square kilo­me­ters with forests cov­er­ing 33 per­cent of this total – the coun­try com­prises var­ied farm­lands defined by the moun­tain­ous ter­rain and plenty of water resources. However, not every area that is amenable to olive cul­ti­va­tion will be able to rely on irri­ga­tion.

“Some olive trees have been planted in areas where they are expe­ri­enc­ing a lack of irri­ga­tion in the sum­mer,” Bobokashvili said. ​“But the goal of the new projects is to plant olive groves in areas suited to peren­nial crop pro­duc­tion.”

“This strat­egy will give farm­ers the option to diver­sify exist­ing crops and to estab­lish pro­duc­tion for a sec­tor which is still in its early stages of devel­op­ment in Georgia,” he added.

Georgian agri­cul­tural experts said effec­tive adap­ta­tion to cli­mate change will require new water wells and irri­ga­tion sys­tems, includ­ing drip irri­ga­tion net­works, to with­stand water short­ages. New mon­i­tor­ing tools will also be needed to pre­dict and ana­lyze the spread of pathogens.

However, Georgian farm­ers will work to mit­i­gate these chal­lenges by using the best farm­ing tech­niques, such as wind­break lines and new mulching tech­nolo­gies to main­tain mois­ture in the soil.

“We can already count on a com­plete and mod­ern­ized pro­duc­tion chain, as our olive pro­cess­ing facil­i­ties are up to date and already pro­duce extra vir­gin olive oil from local groves,” Bobokashvili said.

With IOC sup­port, new expert train­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties will help improve the effi­ciency of har­vest­ing and trans­form­ing olives.

Bobokashvili said that to with­stand the cold Georgian win­ters and boost the expan­sion of olive grow­ing, farm­ers have mostly adopted two olive cul­ti­vars imported from Turkey: Gemlick, which is tra­di­tion­ally used for black table olive pro­duc­tion, and Ayvalik, or Edremit, which is mostly grown in north­ern Turkey.

“In such a rel­e­vant moment for olive grow­ing expan­sion, it has been cru­cial to choose the cor­rect vari­eties,” Bobokashvili said. ​“We need them to be capa­ble of over­com­ing cold win­ters and suit­able for the spe­cific farm­ing prac­tices of the region, such as cop­per spray­ing in autumn and reduced nitro­gen fer­til­iza­tion.”

Planting sev­eral Italian cul­ti­vars capa­ble of cop­ing with cold cli­mates, such as Ghiacciola, Frantoio, Correggiolo, Leccino and Ascolana, may also help Georgian farm­ers expand pro­duc­tion.

Additional research is under­way to deter­mine whether Arbequina and Koroneikli – both of which grow in high-den­sity groves – would be suit­able in Georgia.

The future of olive grow­ing in the coun­try will also be built on its his­toric roots, as researchers hope to incor­po­rate at least some of the ancient cul­ti­vars that used to dot the coun­try­side into the cur­rent pro­duc­tion matrix.

According to leg­end, olive trees were first brought to Georgia and neigh­bor­ing Armenia by Noah. However, sci­en­tific evi­dence shows the first evi­dence of olive trees in the region dat­ing back to the 1^st or 2^nd cen­tury C.E., when olive trees are believed to have been imported from Greece.

Since their intro­duc­tion, olive trees have become part of the cul­ture, with both table olives and olive oil fea­tur­ing promi­nently in local cui­sine and tra­di­tional med­i­cine. However, harsh Georgian win­ters have led to many years in which olive trees were severely dam­aged.

Despite these obsta­cles, experts believe that cul­ti­vars such as Oturi, Butko, Gorvala and Tbilisuri have been grown by locals spo­rad­i­cally for cen­turies.

“At the moment, these ancient cul­ti­vars are yet to be exam­ined but pre­lim­i­nary explo­rations in west Georgia have found very old olive trees that will need to be iden­ti­fied,” Bobokashvili said. ​“The goal is to exam­ine them and prop­a­gate these trees.”

“The sci­en­tists are also work­ing to intro­duce new vari­eties and inves­ti­gate the fea­si­bil­ity of new high-den­sity groves,” he added.

• International Olive Council