Olive Oil Price Surge Triggers Rise in Theft of Century-Old Trees in Mediterranean
Rise in olive oil prices due to Spanish drought leads to increased crime across the Mediterranean; growers forced to contend with thefts, high production costs and reduced yields due to early harvesting.
- Olive oil prices have risen due to a two-year drought in Spain, prompting criminal activity across the Mediterranean, including warehouse break-ins, dilution of oil with inferior products, and the theft of heavily laden branches or entire trees using chainsaws.
- Rising prices have led to increased thefts in olive-growing regions of Greece, Italy, and Spain. Thieves do not only steal olives, but also inflict serious harm on the trees, with recovering to normal condition taking up to 4-5 years.
- Farmers are facing numerous challenges due to this criminal activity, including a decrease in their olive yields, increased production costs, and the impact of climate change bringing warmer winters, major floods, and intense forest fires.
- Some growers, to avoid long-term damage to their trees, have resorted to early harvesting, which results in accepting lower yields. As an example, a farmer owning 5,000 trees had to use more than 2.5 times the olives by weight to produce the same amount of oil as the previous year after taking an early harvest.
- The global olive oil market, after years of growth, has been disrupted, with global production expected to shrink to 2.5 million metric tons this crop year, down from 3.4 million a year earlier. This has resulted in increased consumer prices, with a 1-liter bottle oil in Greece jumping from $8-$9 last year to as high as $15 this year.
- In response to the crisis, farmers in different countries are taking distinct measures. Italian growers are pleading for the formation of a police agriculture division. Greek farmers want to reinstate a rural police division that was phased out in 2010. In Spain, a company has developed tracking devices that look like olives to aid in catching thieves.
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