What is the future of traditional olive groves?
26th November is the day chosen by UNESCO to celebrate World Olive Tree Day.
This initiative, established in 2019, aims to encourage the protection of olive trees and highlight their contribution to economic and social development, the preservation of natural resources, and environmental sustainability.
26th November was a day of celebration, but also a day for reflection on the future of traditional olive groves in our country.
Traditional olive groves cover approximately 250,000 hectares in Portugal. They are mostly rain-fed, difficult to mechanise and have higher production costs than modern olive groves.
In recent years, periods of high temperatures and extreme drought have contributed to a decline in production. This season, the Galician olive, the main national variety, was decimated by blight and ended up falling, making it impossible to harvest.
The downward trend in olive oil prices to levels below production costs, combined with climate change, will lead to the abandonment of large areas of olive groves in the short term.
It is urgent to analyse the reality of the market, understand the availability of the product and manage to make the olive oil from traditional olive groves profitable.
