Farmers in Córdoba Fear Lasting Effects of Prolonged Drought

Water scarcity is hav­ing a sig­nif­i­cant effect on the olive har­vest across Spain this year. However, grow­ers in Córdoba now fear that the impact of the drought might extend into the 2023 har­vest.

Some rain­fall in the last few weeks in parts of the coun­try was insuf­fi­cient to replen­ish largely-evap­o­rated water resources. As a result, the coun­try’s reser­voirs are still well below their aver­age capac­ity, and dis­cus­sions are ongo­ing at the national and local lev­els to deter­mine and man­age water use pri­or­i­ties.

Asaja Córdoba, an asso­ci­a­tion of young farm­ers and ranch­ers, warned there might not be enough pre­cip­i­ta­tion this autumn and win­ter for olive trees to pro­duce fruit next year.

The asso­ci­a­tion said less drought-stricken areas have already started har­vest­ing and trans­form­ing their olives, with yields well below aver­age. The phe­nom­e­non is due to both a reduced quan­tity of fruits and water stress, which low­ered the oil accu­mu­la­tion in the dru­pes.

“The drought we are cop­ing with will have a larger impact on olives size, leav­ing us with smaller fruits,” said Ignacio Fernández de Mesa, pres­i­dent of the asso­ci­a­tion. ​“That is why we can only hope for rain­fall to set in in these weeks to improve the well­be­ing of the olive groves.”

In the cur­rent sit­u­a­tion, de Mesa warned that yields in the province are expected to be halved, result­ing in €500 mil­lion in losses in the 2022/23 crop year.

Asaja Córdoba also noted that the pro­duc­tion decrease would fur­ther affect farm­ers already fac­ing sky­rock­et­ing fuel, energy and fer­til­iz­ers costs.

According to the asso­ci­a­tion, diesel fuel prices have risen from €0.56 to €1.30 per liter in less than one year. Likewise, fer­til­izer prices have increased 105 per­cent in the same period, ris­ing from €380 per ton to €780 per ton.

However, the sig­nif­i­cant yield reduc­tion in Córdoba is not a sur­prise. Similar trends have been observed across Andalusia, the world’s largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing region, and in other sig­nif­i­cant Spanish olive-grow­ing regions.

The Spanish Ministry for Agriculture, Fishery and Food pub­lished offi­cial esti­mates con­firm­ing a 48 per­cent decrease in Spanish olive oil pro­duc­tion.

The min­istry esti­mates olive oil yields to reach 773,881 tons in 2022/23, well below the 1,489,351 tons of the 2021/2022 sea­son.

According to the data, Andalusia has expe­ri­enced a 49 per­cent pro­duc­tion decrease. In Jaén, the largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing province in Andalusia, the yield is expected to fall 60 per­cent to 200,000 tons. Meanwhile, in Córdoba, pro­duc­tion is expected to reach 158,000 tons, a 47 per­cent drop.

Similar declines are expected in Extremadura (-53 per­cent), Spain’s third-largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing region, while the Valencian Community antic­i­pates a 58 per­cent fall.

Slightly bet­ter news has come from Castilla-La Mancha, Spain’s sec­ond-largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing region, which expects a 39 per­cent decrease and Catalonia, which antic­i­pates a 41 per­cent fall.

• Asaja Córdoba
• Agropopular