Olives

Olive oil producers are improving irrigation and seeking new varieties of olives to safeguard production as climate change upends harvests, causing prices of the staple of the Mediterranean diet to soar.

"Climate change is already a reality and we need to adapt to it," according to the executive director of the International Olive Council (IOC) Jaime Lillo.

Turkish authorities have eased restrictions on the export of olive oil, amid expectations that production will pick up this season, removing an outright ban that was introduced in August last year.

Global production of table olives is expected to increase during the 2021-2022 crop year, according to the latest estimates from the International Olive Council (IOC). However, according to the same data, in Greece the drop in production of table olives this year (2021-2022) is expected to exceed 20%.

The Active Users Association identified imitations of quality olive oil on the Bulgarian market. The survey includes 28 brands, all of them being bought in supermarkets in Sofia.

In olive oil-producing countries such as Greece, tourists can wander through olive groves all year, observing the summer growth of olives, their autumn harvest, the winter landscapes, the new spring branches, leaves, and blossoms, and the cycle’s annual repetition. We can see people and nature working together to make Greek liquid gold in its homeland.

I grew old while constantly writing on this topic for many long years and signing one campaign after another, but somehow, the enthusiasm of those who revive and submit the bill to cut down olive trees has not petered out. 

Turkey witnessed a heated debate over the fate of its olive trees this week during voting on a production reform draft in parliament. Although some provisions were left out by the government amid severe opposition from various parts of the society, a number of key provisions remained the same the extent that "olive trees will no longer being subject to legal protection," according to opposition

There is something beyond the Mediterranean Sea that bounds the countries sharing its shores: The olive. The olive tree is mentioned from the Torah to the Bible and eventually in the Quran. In the Quran it is mentioned as the "?ecere-i Tayyibe," a beneficial fruitful tree, or functional if it can be described as such.