How Climate Change Has Impacted the 2019 Harvest

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The effects of cli­mate change are being felt by olive oil pro­duc­ers around the globe. Though many coun­tries expe­ri­enced a rebound year in 2019, fore­casts for con­tin­ued extreme weather are fore­bod­ing for pro­duc­ers con­cerned about drought, hail, rain and sea-level rise, and the issues they pose to olive-grow­ing oper­a­tions.

In 2018, Italy, Greece and other Southern European olive-oil-pro­duc­ing nations expe­ri­enced erratic weather events that were linked to cli­mate change. Summer droughts, late frosts and strong winds cre­ated short­ages in olive pro­duc­tion. Italy’s pro­duc­tion was down 57 per­cent as a result.

A lack of rain­fall this year cre­ated issues in Spain, where total olive oil pro­duc­tion is expected to decrease by 44 per­cent.

Roman Rivera, man­ag­ing direc­tor of Portugal’s ELAIA, said the dry grow­ing sea­son hit Portugal as well.

“This has been a very dry grow­ing sea­son since we had lit­tle rain dur­ing win­ter and spring and soils are dry. In areas where irri­ga­tion is avail­able it has been pos­si­ble to irri­gate the olive groves,” he said.

Rivera added that despite the dry grow­ing sea­son, Portuguese pro­duc­ers will do alright, though not as well as other regions in Europe.

“The Portuguese grow­ing sea­son is going bet­ter than last year, although not as good as the news we hear from Italy or Greece,” Rivera said in September. ​“In our groves in Spain we are going to have a good crop, even though Spain is not expect­ing a good cam­paign due to lack of rain and last year’s great har­vest.”

Mariana Matos, sec­re­tary-gen­eral of Casa do Azeite, Portugal’s olive oil trade asso­ci­a­tion added that the olive tree is built to with­stand drought, which accounts for a har­vest that will still meet, and per­haps, exceed expec­ta­tions.

But the drought isn’t the only obsta­cle cli­mate change throws in the way of olive oil pro­duc­ers. In a white paper on the effect of cli­mate change on European agri­cul­ture, the European Union (EU) states the evi­dence of cli­mate change is ​“solid and real” and cre­ates changes in rain­fall, tem­per­a­ture fluc­tu­a­tions through­out the year, storms, floods and heat­waves.

Tedi Chiavalon of Croatia’s OPG Chiavalon, said the grow­ing sea­son was ​“chal­leng­ing” due mostly to high tem­per­a­tures dur­ing the bloom­ing period.

“Some cul­ti­vars on some posi­tion suf­fered a lot so, in our region, we are expect­ing 30 per­cent fewer olives than last year,” Chiavalon said.

Temperature fluc­tu­a­tions aren’t new to Croatian pro­duc­ers, Chiavalon said, but they seem to be more fre­quent because of cli­mate change and they can be dev­as­tat­ing.

“We had huge colds in win­ter so our region lost great parts of its pro­duc­tion capac­i­ties,” he said.

Temperatures have risen 1.4°C since pre-indus­trial times, accord­ing to the EU, which could reduce rain­fall, spur more dra­matic weather events, and put stress on aquifers, irri­ga­tion sys­tems and exist­ing water sup­plies.

As a result, the EU rec­om­mends olive grow­ers and other agri­cul­tural pro­duc­ers adjust the tim­ing of their farm­ing oper­a­tions.

Some grow­ers admit­ted to mov­ing har­vest times for­ward or back a week or more and, in Egypt, bloom­ing was delayed by 15 days from a cold win­ter, and a hot sum­mer caused olives to ripen too fast, accord­ing to Roba Ashraf of Wadi Food.

The EU also sug­gests adapt­ing crops with biotech­nol­ogy, inte­grat­ing pest man­age­ment prac­tices and improv­ing soil man­age­ment — all costly mit­i­ga­tion mea­sures for grow­ers who are already oper­at­ing on low mar­gins.

And as the European sea­son winds down, the impacts of cli­mate change on olive grow­ing are being felt in the Southern hemi­sphere. Gabriel Guardia, man­ager at Argentina’s Olivícola Laur, said cli­mate change has ​“def­i­nitely” affected grow­ing oper­a­tions in the coun­try, and in Mendoza, where Laur’s oper­a­tions are based.

“The drought, the lack of pre­cip­i­ta­tion have affected the cul­ti­vars in our coun­try,” Guardia said. ​“The qual­ity is strongly affected by hail and the lack of rain and pre­cip­i­ta­tion that Mendoza suf­fers. While hail affects the qual­ity itself, the lack of pre­cip­i­ta­tion does not allow the cor­rect growth of the olives.”

Though revers­ing the effects of cli­mate change will take a global effort, luck­ily the EU sug­gests agri­cul­tural pro­duc­ers, includ­ing olive oil pro­duc­ers, can be part of the solu­tion.

“Agriculture can also help to pro­vide solu­tions to the over­all cli­mate change prob­lem by reduc­ing emis­sions,” the European Commission wrote recently, ​“and by seques­ter­ing car­bon while not threat­en­ing viable food pro­duc­tion.”

• European Commision


• Chiavalon


• Casa do Azeite