(Madrid) Improving irrigation, selecting new varieties, moving crops… Faced with global warming, which affects harvests and causes prices to soar, olive oil professionals are redoubling their efforts to develop solutions, in conjunction with the scientific world.
“Climate change is already a reality, we have to adapt to it,” Jaime Lillo, executive director of the International Olive Council (IOC), stressed on Wednesday at the first World Olive Oil Congress, which brings together 300 participants in Madrid until Friday.
A painful “reality” for the entire sector, faced for two years with a drop in production on an unprecedented scale, against a backdrop of heat waves and extreme drought in the main producing countries, such as Spain, Greece or Italy.
According to the IOC, global production has thus fallen from 3.42 million tonnes in 2021-2022 to 2.57 million tonnes in 2022-2023, a drop of around a quarter. And based on data transmitted by the organization’s 37 member states, it is expected to decline again in 2023-2024 to 2.41 million tonnes.
This situation has caused prices to soar, ranging from 50% to 70%, depending on the varieties concerned over the past year. In Spain, which supplies half of the world’s olive oil, prices have even tripled since the start of 2021, to the great dismay of consumers.
“Complex scenarios”
“The tension on the markets and the escalation of prices constituted a particularly delicate “stress test” for our sector. We had never experienced this before,” assured Pedro Barato, president of the Interprofessional Organization of Spanish Olive Oil.
“We must prepare for increasingly complex scenarios allowing us to face the climate crisis,” he continued, comparing the situation experienced by olive growers to the “turmoil” experienced by the banking sector during the crisis. financial year 2008.
The outlook, in fact, is not very encouraging.
Today, more than 90% of the world’s olive oil production comes from the Mediterranean basin. However, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), this region – described as a “hotspot” of climate change – is warming 20% faster than average.
A situation that could affect global production in the long term. “We are facing a delicate situation”, which involves “changing the way we treat trees and soils”, summarizes Georgios Koubouris, researcher at the Greek Olive Institute.
“The olive tree is one of the plants best adapted to a dry climate. But in cases of extreme drought, it activates mechanisms to protect itself and no longer produces anything. To have olives, you need a minimum of water,” insists Jaime Lillo.
Genetics and drip
Among the solutions put forward in Madrid is genetic research: for several years, hundreds of varieties of olive trees have been tested in order to identify the species best adapted to climate change, in particular based on their flowering date.
PHOTO THOMAS COEX, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Bottles of olive oil in a supermarket in Madrid.
The objective is to find “varieties which need fewer hours of cold in winter and which are more resistant to the stress caused by lack of water at certain key times” of the year, such as spring, summarizes Juan Antonio Polo, responsible for technological issues at the COI.
The other major area that scientists are working on concerns irrigation, which the sector hopes to develop through the storage of rainwater, the recycling of wastewater or the desalination of seawater, while improving its “efficiency”.
This means abandoning “surface irrigation” and generalizing “drip systems”, which bring water “directly to the roots of the trees” and avoid losses, insists Kostas Chartzoulakis, of the Greek Olive Institute.
To adapt to the new climate situation, a third, more radical option is also being considered: abandoning production in certain areas, which could become unsuitable because they are too desert-like, and developing it in others.
This phenomenon “has already begun”, albeit on a small scale, with the rise of “new plantations” in regions that were previously foreign to olive cultivation, says Jaime Lillo, who says he is “optimistic” about the future, despite the challenges facing the sector.
“Thanks to international cooperation, we will little by little find the solutions,” he promises.