Almost every meal I make involves using olive oil, and I cannot imagine life without it. This is without even getting into how many delicious different kinds of olives there are to eat! So, I was worried when I discovered that a disease is rapidly killing olive trees in Italy and France, putting the olive industry in jeopardy. What kind of dangers are olives facing?
Olive Tree Background
iOlive trees (Olea europaea) are native to the Mediterranean region, and the fruits of these trees are olives. Olive trees can grow 30 – 50 feet tall and 30 feet wide. They grow best in full sun and begin growing in late winter or early spring. They also require well-drained soil with a pH 5.5 – 8.5 from which they can readily absorb nutrients.1 Olive trees are an investment because they cannot be harvested until they are 15 years old. However, the average lifespan of an olive tree is 300 – 600 years. The oldest certified olive tree is over 2,000 years old!2
Approximately 2.25 million tons of olive oil is consumed worldwide every year.3 Spain, Italy, Greece, and other Mediterranean countries are the major producers of olive oil.4 The European Union is the largest consumer, consuming 66% of the global supply.5 In addition to using olive oil for cooking, olive oil and the olive tree have many other important uses and significances. For instance, it is even used in many cosmetic products.6 The olive branch is also a symbol of peace that dates back to ancient Greek and Roman cultures and is featured in many religious scriptures.7
The Plight of the Olive Tree
Xylella fastidiosa, the bacterium that is jeopardizing the global olive industry, was first noticed in southern Italy in 2013.8 Scientists believe that the outbreak arrived with plants imported from Costa Rica. This pathogen is a force to be reckoned with—it has already destroyed citrus trees in Brazil and vineyards in California. In fact, California spends $104 million per year fighting Pierce’s disease, which is a strain of Xylella fastidiosa.9
Salento is a region of southern Italy that is particularly affected by the bacterium. The Italian government had to make the hard decision to make a buffer zone between southern Salento and the north to keep the pathogen from spreading. To create a buffer zone, the infected trees in the north were supposed to be cut down, and the infected trees south of the zone were supposed to be pruned. Enrico Brivio, a European Commission spokesman, said, “The most important thing is that the disease doesn’t spread to the north. We sympathize with [the olive growers]. There are trees that have been there for hundreds of years. They are like monuments.”10
Xylella fastidiosa works by restricting water flow from the roots to the branches and leaves of the tree. So while the olives are not initially affected, as the tree dies, it stops producing olives. Olive growers have learned that an early sign of the disease is when the tree’s leaves become red and curled. Pantaleo Piccinno, a major olive producer, said, “We are scared to go to the fields in the mornings. You leave in the afternoon, and everything looks normal. Then you return in the morning, and you see the first symptoms.” The bacterium is carried from tree to tree by spittlebugs, which eat the leaves of the olive tree. Olive growers try to keep the surrounding grasses short to control these insects.11
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To cover the costs of the culled trees, Maurizio Martina, Italy’s agricultural minister, has said that 11 million euros will be distributed to the impacted olive growers.12 In addition, the European Union recently announced at a scientific workshop on Xylella fastidiosa in Brussels that they will allocate 7 million euros from their Horizon 2020 program to preventing the spread of the bacterium. While Xylella fastidiosa has been found in France, it has not yet spread to Spain, which is the largest producer of olive oil. Stephen Parnell, from the University of Salford in the United Kingdom, said of the two-day-long workshop, “The good thing about this workshop was that it was bringing in experts from places such as Brazil and the US who have a lot of experience working with the pathogen.” In fact, the pathogen had stayed on the North and South America continents for decades until the 1990s, when it was found on pear trees in Taiwan.13
Italian olive growers are trying to remain realistic about the situation. Giovanni Melcarne, a producer and the head of a consortium of olive growers, said, “Our main goal is to save Salento from the bacteria. We need to coexist with it. Eradication is not a feasible goal.”14 The olive industry is not the only major food and beverage industry currently being challenged. The industries, such integral and longstanding industries, with products engrained in the daily lives of cultures across the world, are too looking at supply shortfalls in the years to come.
