In South West France, Plans to Make More Olive Oil

The mayor of Lot-et-Garonne wants to develop olive oil pro­duc­tion in the south­west­ern French region.

Philippe Bousquier called last mon­th’s meet­ing with Yannick Masmondet, an olive oil evan­ge­list and founder of the Oil’ive Green project, to dis­cuss cul­ti­vat­ing olive trees and agri­cul­tural diver­si­fi­ca­tion.

Located between Bordeaux and Toulouse, Lot-et-Garonne is not known for its olive oil pro­duc­tion. However, an increas­ing num­ber of wine­mak­ers in the neigh­bor­ing Gironde region, home to Bordeaux, are plant­ing olive trees as the cli­mate becomes more hos­tile to grapes and hos­pitable to olive trees.

Carole Belbreil, one of the pio­neers of olive oil pro­duc­tion in Lot-et-Garonne, pro­duced just 150 liters in 2017. At the time, she said locals laughed at their efforts when she and her part­ner first launched their busi­ness.

Still, she said, since Lot-et-Garonne receives rain year-round, the region was less affected by cli­mate change, thus a good invest­ment for olive oil pro­duc­tion. Drip irri­ga­tion has also been installed to com­pen­sate for rain­fall deficits.

“Global warm­ing is so obvi­ous,” said Philippe de Faucamberge, Belbreil’s part­ner. ​“It’s good for us, espe­cially since we have water pumped from Lot-et-Garonne, 30 kilo­me­ters away, avail­able all year round.”

In 2016, they began har­vest­ing and milling their first extra vir­gin olive oil, sold under the Oliveraie du Quercy Blanc brand. Since then, they have planted over 1,000 trees and aim to reach 3,000 on 10 hectares.

Bousquier, the mayor, is work­ing to cap­i­tal­ize on Lot-et-Garonne’s advan­tages when demand for olive oil is high in France and pro­duc­tion has slipped across the Mediterranean.

Overall, olive oil pro­duc­tion in France is fore­casted to reach 4,400 tons in the 2023/24 crop year, sur­pass­ing last year’s yield of 3,500 tons but falling short of the five-year aver­age of 4,620 tons.

Bouches-du-Rhône, a depart­ment in the south of France, is the coun­try’s largest pro­ducer of olive oil, with almost 1,650 tons a year, fol­lowed by Vaucluse, with 842 tons yielded annu­ally.

Meanwhile, the International Olive Council esti­mates con­sump­tion in the coun­try to decline slightly to 95,000 tons in the cur­rent crop year.

Still, Masmondet sees an oppor­tu­nity to sig­nif­i­cantly expand olive oil pro­duc­tion across south­ern France to meet the high demand and take advan­tage of the increas­ingly amenable cli­mate.

After work­ing in Morocco’s olive oil pro­duc­tion sec­tor for over ten years, he plans to offer com­pre­hen­sive sup­port to local farm­ers.

At the December meet­ing, he explained how local farm­ers could rely on his orga­ni­za­tion for help in sev­eral areas, includ­ing fea­si­bil­ity stud­ies, land devel­op­ment, turnkey olive farm man­age­ment and brand pro­mo­tion.

In the short term, Oil’live Green plans to plant 60,000 hectares of olive trees in France, slightly more than dou­ble the coun­try’s cur­rent olive groves. Ultimately, the con­sul­tancy hopes to increase pro­duc­tion to meet a far higher per­cent­age of local demand.

• Petite Bleu
• Sud Oest
• La Depeche