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International Workshop Addresses Climate Change Threats to Olive Trees

By Paolo DeAndreis
Jul. 8, 2025 19:37 UTC
Summary Summary

The International Olive Council and part­ners held a work­shop in Italy to address the impact of cli­mate change on olive genet­ics and olive tree resilience. The event focused on the impor­tance of pre­serv­ing genetic diver­sity in olive cul­ti­va­tion to develop new, cli­mate-resilient cul­ti­vars and main­tain the cul­tural her­itage of olive farm­ing. The work­shop also high­lighted the need for inter­na­tional col­lab­o­ra­tion and invest­ment in mod­ern irri­ga­tion sys­tems to enhance the sus­tain­abil­ity and qual­ity of olive oil pro­duc­tion.

The International Olive Council (IOC) and a grow­ing global net­work of part­ners con­vened in Italy for a work­shop to strengthen col­lab­o­ra­tion in olive genet­ics.

At the heart of the work­shop was a crit­i­cal issue: how to safe­guard the future of the olive tree in a world increas­ingly defined by drought, heat­waves and pathogens.

According to an IOC note, the three-day event held in Rende, Calabria, marked a sig­nif­i­cant step for­ward in the olive sector’s efforts to build resilience against cli­mate change.

We need tar­geted pub­lic invest­ment in mech­a­niza­tion, water infra­struc­ture and train­ing. Without it, our olive sec­tor will con­tinue to decline.- Enzo Perri, direc­tor, Crea Ofa

More than 25 del­e­ga­tions from olive-grow­ing coun­tries par­tic­i­pated in the event, orga­nized in col­lab­o­ra­tion with Italy’s National Research Center for Olive, Fruit and Citrus Crops (Crea Ofa), and Ciheam Zaragoza, the Mediterranean agro­nomic insti­tute based in Spain.

According to the IOC, key experts and insti­tu­tions in olive genet­ics, plant breed­ing, and agri­cul­tural pol­icy have strength­ened their coop­er­a­tion in defin­ing new mit­i­ga­tion strate­gies, study­ing the impacts of cli­mate change, and iden­ti­fy­ing and pro­duc­ing resilient geno­types.

Participants included IOC deputy exec­u­tive direc­tor Abderraouf Laajimi, sci­en­tists from Italy’s National Research Council, olive pro­duc­ers and indus­try rep­re­sen­ta­tives, national and regional offi­cials, and del­e­gates from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

See Also:Olive Council Incorporates Germplasm Bank Into Global Treaty

Enzo Perri, direc­tor of Crea Ofa, said the core objec­tive of the work­shop was to con­nect and coor­di­nate the world’s most cru­cial olive germplasm col­lec­tions.

“The idea is to cre­ate a net­work of all major col­lec­tions rec­og­nized by the IOC and national gov­ern­ments,” Perri told Olive Oil Times. ​“Not just for cat­a­logu­ing pur­poses, but to build a true inter­na­tional infra­struc­ture for research and knowl­edge shar­ing.”

Germplasm banks are liv­ing libraries of genetic diver­sity. They are essen­tial resources at a time when chang­ing envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions are putting a strain on olive trees that once thrived in the Mediterranean cli­mate.

Rising tem­per­a­tures, erratic rain­fall and declin­ing win­ter chill hours are becom­ing com­mon across many Mediterranean regions, threat­en­ing flow­er­ing and fruit set.

In south­ern Italy, parts of Greece and Tunisia, among other regions, har­vests have declined sharply as key cli­matic trig­gers for olive devel­op­ment fail to mate­ri­al­ize.

“Drought is only part of the story,” Perri said. ​“We are also see­ing prob­lems caused by insuf­fi­cient win­ter chill. Many olive cul­ti­vars require a cold dor­mancy period to flower prop­erly in spring. Without it, pro­duc­tiv­ity col­lapses.”

Adding to this is the ris­ing threat of pathogens, par­tic­u­larly the bac­terium Xylella fas­tidiosa, which has dev­as­tated olive groves in Puglia.

One of Crea Ofa’s most ambi­tious projects is an open-field exper­i­men­tal site in the heart of the infected area, where more than 250 olive vari­eties are cul­ti­vated side by side to assess their response to the dis­ease.

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“It’s a real liv­ing lab­o­ra­tory,” Perri said. ​“And it gives us a chance to test our assump­tions under extreme envi­ron­men­tal pres­sure.”

In his remarks, Laajimi stressed the strate­gic impor­tance of con­serv­ing olive genetic resources as a key tool for adapt­ing to cli­mate change and pre­vent­ing genetic ero­sion.

Abderraouf Laajim addressed a growing global network of partners working to strengthen collaboration in olive genetic and breeding research. (Photo: IOC)

Genetic ero­sion poses a grow­ing threat to the future of olive cul­ti­va­tion. As tra­di­tional vari­eties are lost and replaced by a small num­ber of high-yield cul­ti­vars, the genetic diver­sity cru­cial for resilience is dis­ap­pear­ing.

This loss might under­mine the abil­ity to adapt to cli­mate change, fight emerg­ing pests and dis­eases and secure long-term sus­tain­abil­ity.

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According to the experts in Rende, pre­serv­ing this bio­di­ver­sity is essen­tial for breed­ing new, cli­mate-resilient cul­ti­vars and main­tain­ing the cul­tural and agri­cul­tural her­itage of olive farm­ing across the Mediterranean and beyond.

Participants at the Rende work­shop also saw the event as a call to rethink how coun­tries col­lab­o­rate or fail to do so.

“Spain has spent the last 30 years con­tin­u­ously invest­ing in olive breed­ing pro­grams, devel­op­ing new vari­eties for super-inten­sive sys­tems and dis­ease resis­tance. Italy, by con­trast, has remained largely sta­tic since the 1970s. We’ve lost momen­tum,” Perri said.

One notable excep­tion is the Lecciana cul­ti­var, a hybrid devel­oped by Apulian pro­fes­sor Salvatore Camposeo in col­lab­o­ra­tion with researchers from Catalonia.

The result of a care­fully planned cross­ing pro­gram, Lecciana has demon­strated strong adapt­abil­ity and resilience, mak­ing it suit­able for both tra­di­tional and inten­sive cul­ti­va­tion.

“This proves that tar­geted genetic work can deliver prac­ti­cal results,” Perri said. ​“But it shouldn’t be the excep­tion, it should be the norm.”

Perri warned that Italy’s research infra­struc­ture needs a renewed and coor­di­nated national strat­egy. As an exam­ple, he noted that there are cur­rently fewer than 30 researchers in the coun­try spe­cial­iz­ing in olive genet­ics.

In an era of cli­mate change, Perri argued, the sci­en­tif­i­cally sound use of resources in the Mediterranean basin is crit­i­cal. Water and irri­ga­tion are cen­tral to this effort.

“In tra­di­tional nar­ra­tives, olives are often described as drought-tol­er­ant crops. But that’s only true to a point,” he said.

In increas­ingly arid regions such as the Ionian coasts of Calabria and Sicily, months may pass with­out rain­fall.

Under such con­di­tions, trees may flower but never set fruit, or olives may form and then fall pre­ma­turely. Similar prob­lems are being reported across many Mediterranean regions.

“Emergency irri­ga­tion is no longer optional,” Perri warned. ​“Without it, many grow­ers will have no har­vest at all. And that’s not just a local issue, it’s a sys­temic one.”

Investing in mod­ern, effi­cient irri­ga­tion sys­tems is now cru­cial, not only in indus­tri­al­ized super-inten­sive groves but across the board.

“It’s needed to main­tain base­line pro­duc­tiv­ity and fruit qual­ity, and there­fore the qual­ity of the olive oil,” Perri said.

“Our goal is not just to increase yields or resist dis­ease. It’s to pre­serve and enhance the nutri­tional and sen­sory qual­ity of olive oil,” he added. ​“That’s what gives our work mean­ing. Not just sur­viv­ing the cri­sis, but pro­duc­ing olive oils that are health­ier, tastier and more sus­tain­able.”

Research and col­lab­o­ra­tion toward sus­tain­able goals are already deliv­er­ing sig­nif­i­cant impacts, par­tic­u­larly in the use of olive milling by-prod­ucts.

“Olive mill waste­water, once seen as an envi­ron­men­tal prob­lem, is now being stud­ied for its high con­tent of polyphe­nols and antiox­i­dants,” Perri said. ​“We’re real­iz­ing that the olive tree fits per­fectly into a cir­cu­lar econ­omy model. Nothing has to be wasted.”

Today, olive genet­ics research spans three main areas. The first involves explor­ing and con­serv­ing lesser-known local vari­eties that may carry traits func­tional for future breed­ing.

Second, the devel­op­ment of new resilient cul­ti­vars through con­trolled hybridiza­tion, such as the Lecciana. Third, the long-term poten­tial of biotech­nolo­gies, par­tic­u­larly new genomic tech­niques.

Italy has already sequenced the full genome of the Leccino cul­ti­var, a key step for­ward. However, apply­ing gene edit­ing remains dif­fi­cult due to the olive tree’s resis­tance to in vitro regen­er­a­tion.

“We’re not ready yet, but we will be,” Perri said. ​“And when we are, we’ll have new tools to accel­er­ate the species’ improve­ment.”

According to Perri, the pres­ence of an inter­na­tional insti­tu­tion such as the FAO at the Rende work­shop reflects the olive tree’s global rel­e­vance as both an eco­nomic and nutri­tional resource for coun­tries in North Africa, Latin America and Asia.

“FAO sees olive oil as part of the solu­tion,” Perri explained. ​“It’s rich in polyphe­nols, vit­a­min E and healthy fats. It fits into sus­tain­able diets and can sup­port small­holder farm­ers. That’s why FAO strongly sup­ports projects like this.”

For Italy, the stakes are par­tic­u­larly high. Despite soar­ing prices on inter­na­tional mar­kets, many small and medium grow­ers are strug­gling.

“They sim­ply don’t have the cap­i­tal to mod­ern­ize,” Perri said. ​“We need tar­geted pub­lic invest­ment in mech­a­niza­tion, water infra­struc­ture and train­ing. Without it, our olive sec­tor will con­tinue to decline.”

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