Extreme Summer Weather Clouds Europe’s Olive Harvest

Prolonged hot and dry weather has emerged as a common challenge for olive growers across much of Europe this summer, on a continent scientists identify as the fastest-warming on the planet.

Olive trees are among the most drought-resistant perennial crops, but prolonged extreme heat and drought can significantly reduce their productivity.

In Turkey, exceptionally hot weather has affected olive fruit development in some of the country’s main producing areas, including the western region of Manisa.

“The summer season has been quite hot in and around Manisa-Köprübaşı, with temperatures reaching 35°C to 38°C,” Ismail Sahin of award-winning Zagoda Olive Oil told Olive Oil Times.

Sahin said the period from June through August was also extremely dry, with almost no rainfall.

“The hot weather and drought are negatively affecting the development of the olive fruits,” he added. “At Zagoda, we are trying to minimize these problems through regular irrigation.”

Sahin said yields in the region are expected to improve compared with the previous 2025/26 harvest, when olive oil production reached only 40 percent of the expected level.

“We expect production to be approximately 35 percent higher than the previous season’s yield,” he said. “Therefore, I do not consider the claims being made in the press and media that Turkey will achieve a record olive oil production in the new season to be realistic.”

Sahin also stressed that rising production costs pose another significant challenge for Turkish olive oil producers, making it more difficult for them to compete in international markets.

In Greece’s northern Chalkidiki peninsula, producers expect a below-average olive harvest due to unfavorable weather conditions this summer.

“The season started well, but it looks that [the harvest] will be below average,” said Konstantinos Vlavis, head of the local agricultural association of Metaggitsi.

“The adverse weather conditions have caused olive fruits to fall to the ground,” he added. “The drought and some sporadic rains have also favored insects such as the olive borer at a critical period [for the olives].”

Unlike previous years of reduced rainfall, Greece experienced a wet winter. Vlavis noted, however, that prolonged hot and dry periods have become increasingly common, radically altering conditions for olive cultivation.

“Olive pests can now appear earlier than usual, and if not properly treated then [producers] will suffer significant losses in their crops,” he said.

After last year’s disappointing harvest, some early projections put Greek olive oil production above an average crop of 200,000 metric tons in 2026/27.

Greece experienced a relatively quiet wildfire season until mid-July. However, dozens of wildfires broke out across the country in late July and early August, consuming large swathes of forests and agricultural land, including olive groves.

Olive trees were damaged by fires in several producing areas, including Viotia and Attica in central Greece, the northern Chalkidiki peninsula and Crete.

“It’s an awful feeling, when you build something with so much effort, and when money is not easy to get,” Anastasia Hatzoglou, an olive grower from northwestern Attica, told Reuters.

“It was so much effort, and when you put care into your property, your land, the olive oil that you make every year — it’s not great.”

In Italy, extreme weather and olive pests are among the main concerns for the country’s olive oil producers this summer.

“The 2026 olive campaign is strongly conditioned by a peculiar weather trend that is putting a strain on the mechanisms of the resilience of the olive trees,” said agronomist Giovanni Minuto, head of CeRSAA, a public agricultural experimentation center based in Albenga in northern Italy.

Minuto said the rapid rise in temperatures in June and July depleted soil moisture. He urged olive farmers to consider measures such as deficit irrigation and charcoal cartridges placed around trees, which absorb water during winter and gradually release it when needed.

Minuto also warned farmers about olive pests, noting that unusual weather patterns have altered the conventional biological rhythms of pathogens and insects, including the olive fruit fly.

“Unusually cool temperatures, below the optimal 20°C to 25°C for the insect, were recorded in the spring,” he said. “This prolonged cold spell caused a significant slowdown in the pest’s metabolism, which then literally exploded in mid-July 2026.”

Meanwhile, the Italian government has officially adopted the Olive Oil Plan 2026–2030, a strategic roadmap aimed at revitalizing the sector by modernizing existing processing facilities, reducing production costs, strengthening supply chain competitiveness and increasing the country’s olive oil production capacity.

In the western Balkans, Croatia’s olive oil industry has flourished in recent years, with the country’s producers achieving strong results in the Olive Oil Times World Ranking.

Michael Pavlović of Omajolas, an organic olive oil producer in Istria, characterized this year’s olive harvest as “challenging but manageable.”

“The prolonged drought and the need for irrigation are certainly our main concerns at the moment, while our expectations for the coming harvest remain average,” Pavlović told Olive Oil Times.

He said the months since May have been particularly dry in the area, forcing the company to begin watering its olive trees.

“Irrigation involves a considerable amount of additional work, but it allows us to protect the trees and hopefully secure the harvest,” he said. “We are hoping for some rainfall towards the end of August or the beginning of September, as this would be very beneficial for the olives before the harvest.”

Pavlović echoed concerns raised by other European producers about rising production costs, which have become increasingly important as consumers grow more price-conscious.

Croatian olive groves have also been affected by wildfires this summer. A blaze near Omiš, a port town in Dalmatia, forced the evacuation of residents and tourists in mid-August and burned vineyards and olive groves.

The area has a long tradition of viticulture and olive cultivation. Local farmers said their losses extend beyond this year’s harvest, as the fire destroyed decades-old olive trees that will take years to replace.

In Hungary, an unlikely location for olive cultivation, the country’s first groves have taken root in some of its warmer regions.

On the southern slopes surrounding Lake Balaton, winemaker and olive oil producer Csaba Török said the area has already endured its second heatwave of the summer, drying out some of his olive drupes. Török is among the farmers pioneering olive cultivation in Hungary.

“There are a lot of brown olives on the ground now,” Török said. “The temperature is officially now between 37°C and 41°C, but my own measurements often show 43°C.”

Török said he has begun irrigating some of his olive trees. He added that some of the 200 new trees planted on his farm in May, which are about 18 months old, will likely perish because of the prolonged heat.

“The harvest is going to start in early October, as the olives started to grow a little bit earlier than usually this year,” he added.

Török said more farmers around Lake Balaton have also ventured into olive cultivation. However, an extremely harsh winter severely damaged many of their young trees.

In contrast with most European producing countries, where extreme heat has challenged growers, above-normal temperatures have benefited olive trees in another emerging producer: Great Britain.

“Our olive trees have enjoyed the warmer than average British spring and summer weather conditions so far, with good plant growth and good fruit set,” said David Hoyles, a producer in the lowlands of the Lincolnshire Fens in eastern England who is experimenting with olive cultivation in a warming climate.

Hoyles said Britain is experiencing its fourth heatwave of the summer, exacerbating already dry conditions. With no significant rain since early June, he said he has been watering his young olive trees for about four months.

“Our olive trees are very young in life with a small but developing root system, so they need help with water availability during dry times,” he said.

“In July, it was very rewarding to see the delicate little white flowers turn into small fruit, and give us an indication that we will have an olive crop to harvest and to make a larger quantity of English olive oil this winter,” Hoyles concluded.