Farmers in Greece Witness the Impacts of Climate Change After Historically Low Harvest

Summary

The Greek olive oil sec­tor faced a dif­fi­cult year with record-low pro­duc­tion due to adverse weather and off-year olive trees, lead­ing some pro­duc­ers to ques­tion the via­bil­ity of olive cul­ti­va­tion in the face of cli­mate change. Despite these chal­lenges, Greek pro­duc­ers like Dr. Kavvadia and Rafteli Protouli received awards at the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, high­light­ing the ongo­ing com­mit­ment to qual­ity and resilience in the indus­try.

The Greek olive oil sec­tor was tested to the limit this year, with the coun­try yield­ing record-low pro­duc­tion of less than 150,000 tons of olive oil due to adverse weather and the olive trees enter­ing an ​‘off-year’ in most of the country’s pro­duc­ing regions.

Some of the 56 Greek pro­duc­ers awarded at this year’s World Competition still feel the after­shocks of the chal­leng­ing har­vest.

“This year, we real­ized that the cul­ti­va­tion of olive trees is no longer viable,” said Apostolos Porsanidis, the owner of Dr. Kavva­dia, a return­ing entrant from the Ionian island of Corfu. ​“We have to evolve with the chal­lenges cli­mate change brings.”

The pro­ducer earned a Silver Award at the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition for a medium mono­va­ri­etal from the local Lianelia vari­ety.

“The fruit­set was min­i­mal, and the olive fruit fly took a heavy toll on the olives,” Porsanidis said. ​“We worked hard to pro­duce our olive oil and were delighted to receive a Silver Award this year. The NYIOOC has always been the ideal place to intro­duce our olive oil to more con­sumers from around the world.”

Porsanidis’ words were echoed by Vlasios Nisiotis of Rafteli Protouli from Lesbos, who said that the Gold Award the com­pany won at the 2024 NYIOOC guar­an­tees the favor­able recep­tion of the company’s brand abroad.

“By sub­mit­ting our Aegean Gold PGI Lesvos to the com­pe­ti­tion, we wanted to con­firm that we are con­tin­u­ing on the path of qual­ity that we have been fol­low­ing for years,” Nisiotis said.

He noted, how­ever, that cli­mate change has left its mark on the dis­mal har­vest Lesbos expe­ri­enced this crop year.

“The 2023/24 har­vest was one of the worst in the last 20 years,” he said. ​“Olive cul­ti­va­tion has been hit harder than ever with unprece­dented low pro­duc­tion vol­umes due to cli­mate change.”

“The low olive oil yields and the water short­ages we reg­u­larly face on the island may mean that the time has come for us peo­ple to deal with all the dam­age we have caused to the planet for years,” Nisiotis added.

He noted that the 2024/25 har­vest looks promis­ing for now. ​“We hope for an abun­dant har­vest next year. All the signs are encour­ag­ing,” Nisiotis said. ​“However, there is still a marathon to run until the har­vest begins, and any­thing can hap­pen.”

Agriston, another award-win­ning pro­ducer halfway between Thessaloniki and Kavala, rep­re­sented north­ern Greek pro­duc­ers at the World Competition, earn­ing a Silver Award for a medium mono­va­ri­etal from Chalkidiki olives.

Owner Vangelis Chrysafoudis believes pack­aged olive oil is the way for­ward for Greek pro­duc­ers.

“When you sell in bulk, you are at the mercy of the Italians,” he said. ​“If you sell it pack­aged, at least you con­trol your game.”

The com­pany exports its branded olive oil to numer­ous coun­tries, includ­ing Sweden, France, Canada, the United States and Germany. However, last year’s mea­ger yield made Chrysafoudis recon­sider his strat­egy.

“Two years ago, we pro­duced 500 tons of oil, and last year, 70,” he said. ​“The reduced pro­duc­tion shat­tered my dreams. I could have opened many more doors if I had more olive oil. Still, I won’t return to sell­ing at €1.50 per kilo­gram. I’ll man­age.”

Athanasios Molasiotis, a pro­fes­sor of agron­omy at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, said that higher-than-usual tem­per­a­tures, which are attrib­uted to cli­mate change, are affect­ing the Greek olive oil sec­tor in mul­ti­ple ways.

He added that the high tem­per­a­tures mainly occur in the sum­mer, exhaust­ing the olive trees.

“Another prob­lem is what cen­tral and espe­cially north­ern Greece is expe­ri­enc­ing: the high win­ter tem­per­a­tures,” Molasiotis said. Olive trees must receive fairly low tem­per­a­tures in the win­ter for strong flow­er­ing and fruit­ing.”

“However, [the reduced fruit­ing] of the olive trees should not intim­i­date us,” he added. ​“Olive trees have ​‘on’ and ​‘off years,’ show­ing par­tial fruit­ing or even fruit­less­ness after a year of intense fruit­ing. On the one hand, there are the cli­matic fac­tors that affect the fruit­ing, and on the other hand, the olive trees by nature do not bear fruit con­sis­tently.”

Diamantis Pierrakos of Laconiko, an award-win­ning pro­ducer from the Peloponnese penin­sula, said that a tar­geted approach is required to coun­ter­bal­ance the impact of cli­mate change on olive groves and trees.

“While we may not have direct con­trol over cli­mate change and its asso­ci­ated warmer con­di­tions, we do have the abil­ity to make changes within our olive groves to mit­i­gate some of its effects,” he said.

“Our olive groves, sit­u­ated along the south­ern coast of the Peloponnese, face chal­lenges such as poor soil nutri­ents and low water reten­tion due to sandy soil,” Piuerrakos added.

“Our strat­egy has focused on improv­ing and for­ti­fy­ing the soil con­di­tions to enhance the resilience of our olive trees against the chang­ing cli­mate,” he explained. ​“By strength­en­ing our soil and trees, we have observed sig­nif­i­cant improve­ments and increased resilience in our groves.”

Laconiko earned a quar­tet of awards (two Gold and two Silver) at this year’s World Competition, bring­ing its total to 21 awards and estab­lish­ing its posi­tion as the most-awarded Greek pro­ducer in the Olive Oil Times World Ranking.

“We carry this year’s awards with pride,” Pierrakos said. “ Since it was our most chal­leng­ing har­vest to date, with a short­age of work­ers and con­stant delays dur­ing our har­vest, the fact that we man­aged to be rec­og­nized once again speaks vol­umes about our com­mit­ment to qual­ity.”

• Ekathimerini
• CNN Greece