Olive oil industry’s recovery and future

• Olive oil industry rebounds after two years of drought and disease
• 2024/25 harvest up 3.64% year-on-year
• Xylella Fastidiosa still a threat, but producers fighting back with natural solutions
• Sustainability takes centre stage through reduced chemical use, recycled packaging, and biodiversity initiatives
• Olive trees are climate allies, absorbing 47 million tonnes of CO₂ annually

The olive oil industry has been fighting fires on multiple fronts over the past two years.

Drought conditions across crucial olive growing nations, including Spain, Greece and Portugal, weakened harvests, Xylella Fastidiosa killed thousands of olive trees globally, and cases of olive oil fraud skyrocketed.

What’s more, all this led to a sharp rise in prices for manufacturers, retailers, and ultimately consumers. In fact, so steep was the shift that shoppers started to turn away from olive oil altogether, opting for cheaper vegetable and seed alternatives.

However, things are looking up for the olive oil industry, as growing conditions improve.

“We had two years of chronically short harvests – 2022/23 and 2023/24,” says Lisa Mullins, marketing manager for olive oil giant, Filippo Berio. “But the 2024/25 harvest has been bountiful.”

And, according to the European Commission, favourable growing conditions have allowed olive oil production in the current 2024/25 campaign to “recover notably” from the declines of the two previous campaigns, reaching just over 3.37 million tonnes.

This represents a 3.64% increase on the previous season, and is 12% over the average for the past five years.

However, while this is good news for manufacturers and consumers, there’s no guarantee the weather will continue to deliver.

As a result, olive oil suppliers and manufacturers are innovating to futureproof the industry against the impact of drought, disease and any other challenge nature might throw at it.

Futureproofing olive oil

Known to many as ‘liquid gold’, olive oil is a high-value commodity, essential to growing-region economies, and loved the world over.

But more than that, it’s also regarded as an important part of the cultural heritage of the regions in which it’s produced.

“We are compelled to take care of this beauty,” says Gioia Giacobazzi, sustainability coordinator at olive oil producer Salov Spa.

And one of the main ways they’re doing this is by protecting the environment they’re grown in.

“We invest a lot of time and effort in sustainability initiatives at the agricultural phase of olive oil production,” says Filippo Berio’s Mullins. “Our olive groves in Tuscany are open air laboratories where we can research new ideas.”

And it’s in those very laboratories that Filippo Berio discovered they could deter spittlebugs, the insect that spreads Xylella Fastidiosa, by planting cover grass in the groves.

“We’re just using nature to deal with nature,” says Mullins. “It’s a really sustainable way to manage with a problem.”

There are also heritage olive varieties, which are now being replanted by suppliers, as they’ve been found to be naturally resilient to Xylella Fastidiosa.

But while some insects are unwelcome in the groves, most are actively encouraged, along with birds and other wildlife, through the installation of little wooden homes dotted around the groves.

Added to this, many olive oil manufacturers are cutting energy usage, water usage, and waste. As well as reducing the use of virgin materials, in favour of recycled.

“Sixty percent of our glass is recycled, our PET plastic is either 50% or 100% recycled, all of our paper, trays and labels are recycled, and all of our shrink wrap is recycled and recyclable,” says Filippo Berio’s Mullins.

On top of all this are the benefits olive trees provide all by themselves:

• Olive trees are carbon sinks, meaning they absorb and store carbon dioxide. Olive groves spanning 10.5 million hectares globally can potentially remove 47 million tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere annually (International Olive Council).
• Olive trees are predominantly wind-pollinated, meaning the wind carries pollen from one flower to another. And there are even some varieties which are self-fertile, meaning they produce fruit without needing pollen from another tree. This makes them immune to the threat of biodiversity loss.
• Byproducts from olive trees, such as olive pulp left over from olive oil pressing, can be sold to other industries and used as raw materials. They can also be used to enrich the soil for the trees themselves.

As the olive oil industry emerges from one of its most challenging periods, it’s clear that resilience and innovation are essential to driving its recovery and safeguarding its future.

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