Four olive trees have been infected by the aggressive pathogen in the Barletta-Andria-Trani province, a region responsible for nearly half of Apulia’s olive oil production.

The latest infections were confirmed by the laboratories of the Institute for the Sustainable Protection of Plants, which is part of the National Research Council (CNR).

These findings are a direct result of the extensive monitoring activities carried out in the Apulian region by local institutions, researchers, and volunteers.

Since January, nearly 250 samples have been collected and analyzed in the Bisceglie area, mostly from olive trees, along with a few from other species, such as wild cherry, which are considered susceptible to Xylella fastidiosa.

The discovery of infections north of Bari triggered a nationwide alarm, coming less than three months after the most recent Xylella outbreak found in Minervino Murge, about 60 kilometers from Bisceglie.

In both cases, the subspecies “pauca” of Xylella fastidiosa was identified; the strain has already devastated southern Puglia for over a decade.

Oronzo Antonio Milillo, president of the Apulian Federation of Agronomists, told AndriaViva magazine that the alert level is currently very high due to the specific characteristics of the infection, which are still being investigated.

“The bacterium typically spreads only a few hundred meters per day, so it’s reasonable to assume that a vector may have unknowingly transported it along the road. This is a possibility we must seriously consider,” Milillo said, referring to insects that often attach to cars and can easily be transported over long distances by unsuspecting vehicles.

In a note published on the Apulian Regional Council website, regional authorities explained that all service areas along the motorways are currently being inspected.

It is believed that the insect vectors responsible for the new infections may have traveled aboard trucks stopping at these service areas.

“On the other hand, if the spread is due to a natural movement of the vector, we should already have found, or will likely find through further testing, intermediate areas of infection. That’s why the alert level is extremely high,” Milillo added.

Twelve years after Xylella fastidiosa began infecting millions of olive trees in the southern Salento area, the new findings have reignited concerns about the potential economic consequences of a renewed outbreak.

“We are talking about an area… where olive growing is the leading open-air industry, with significant numbers of jobs and household incomes tied to the sector,” said Gennaro Sicolo, president of the Apulian branch of the Italian Farmers’ Confederation (CIA).

“If strong action is not taken immediately, the situation could spiral out of control in the metropolitan area of Bari and the province of Foggia as well,” he warned.

As prescribed by European Union regulations, a 400-meter-wide area around the infected trees is currently undergoing thorough sampling of olive trees and other Xylella fastidiosa-susceptible plants.

The infected trees will be removed through procedures designed to prevent the further spread of the bacterium. A new red zone has been declared within a 50-meter radius of the trees.

Within a 2.5‑kilometer radius around the infected areas, a buffer zone has been established, marking the area as potentially affected by Xylella fastidiosa.

This designation enables special territorial surveillance and plant monitoring. 

Within the buffer zone, strict mandatory preventive actions are being implemented, primarily aimed at preventing the spread of insects that carry the bacterium from one plant to another.

Both the CIA and the olive oil producers’ association Unapol have called for a new national plan to combat Xylella fastidiosa and to allocate more funds for the recovery of olive cultivation in the affected areas, primarily through the use of Xylella fastidiosa-resistant olive cultivars.

“The four infected olive trees are all in a roadside service area near Bisceglie. Both the trees and the land they occupy were neglected for a long time,” Giuseppe di Niso, spokesperson for the Bari chapter of the farmers’ association Confagricoltura, told BisceglieViva.

“In that area, the mandatory maintenance work was not carried out as required by current regional regulations on Xylella fastidiosa prevention,” di Niso said.

He urged people not to panic but to comply more strictly with the regulations governing preventive measures.

Those measures have already been shown to significantly slow the spread of the bacterium, for which no cure currently exists.

“I can’t say that all my fellow farmers follow the guidelines against the bacterium,” Pietro Maggi, a farmer in Barletta-Andria-Trani, told Olive Oil Times. “But I can say that awareness is growing, we all know we need to stand together if we want to contain the damage at least.”

The region, known as the spur on Italy’s boot, is home to a large national park and is considered one of the most ancient areas of olive oil production in the country.

There, blending Coratina olives with the autochthonous Ogliarola Garganica cultivar, Oleificio Fratelli Vieste crafted its Aurea brand, which earned a Silver Award at the 2025 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

The family-run farm and olive oil mill, founded in 1985, has 20 hectares of orchards, primarily dedicated to Ogliarola, Coratina and Leccino olive trees, but thrives on close relationships with local olive growers.

“This is our fortieth year, and many producers have been with us for a very long time,” Raffaele Vieste, co-owner of the company, told Olive Oil Times.

The mill’s activity originated from a long-standing family tradition of olive farming.

“Our model is based on synergy. We know the producers, we talk with them, and we select the best batches. This allows us to work with different oils and offer variety,” Vieste said.

“We know which olives come from each grove, how and when to harvest them, and how to process them at their best. It’s a job built on mutual knowledge,” he added.

Aurea is made from olives harvested early in October, when yields are low but the aromatic profile is more developed.

“When we harvest so early, the yield does not even reach eight percent,” Vieste said, meaning that for every 100 kilograms of olives processed, no more than eight kilograms of oil are extracted, a yield considered relatively low.

“It’s a risky, even uneconomical, choice, but that’s when Ogliarola Garganica expresses its best notes: almond, vanilla, a hint of tomato,” Vieste said. “It’s a complex yet delicate oil. People appreciate it for its balance.”

According to Vieste, in Aurea, the intense, structured oil from Coratina, a well-known Apulian cultivar, is balanced by the milder Ogliarola.

“In recent years, people tend to bring extreme olive oils to competitions, with very strong fruitiness,” Vieste said.

“We prefer to preserve the identity of our land. Ogliarola must always be there. It is our signature. Even when we use Coratina, we aim for balance, not strength for its own sake,” he added.

While the company produces a wide range of products, including extra virgin olive oil with different profiles, its focus remains on the Ogliarola Garganica cultivar.

“For us, it’s not just a variety, it’s identity. It is an olive oil that, when processed well, tells the story of this land like no other,” Vieste said.

“It has a thousand nuances. Depending on the harvest time, it can range from mild and sweet to intensely green and fruity,” he added.

In recent years, the Vieste farm, like all producers in the region, has had to contend with droughts and heat waves.

“We find ourselves harvesting at 24 ºC in November. We used to start after November 1st, when the cold weather would arrive. Now, that cold seems to have vanished,” Vieste said.

Harvesting olives under such conditions requires extra effort to maintain quality, as high temperatures affect the trees, the fruits and the harvest schedule.

“Climate is the main challenge, even more than pests. Olive trees need cold to rest. When the rhythm changes, everything changes,” Vieste said.

To adapt to the impacts of climate change, the company has adopted targeted agronomic practices.

“We’re lucky to have nearby groundwater. Emergency irrigation saves us during critical periods,” Vieste explained.

A crucial part of this adaptation is specialized pruning.

“It may seem trivial, but giving trees the right shape is fundamental. Pruning helps the tree breathe, produce better and withstand heat,” Vieste said.

“Here we have a strong tradition of pruners. Unfortunately, there are fewer and fewer of them. Still, some have recently started teaching the new generations,” he added.

Other practices focus on maintaining soil fertility.

“We try to keep the soil alive, with vegetation cover to retain moisture and support the roots,” Vieste said.

Sustainability is integral to the company’s vision. “We recover everything: olive pomace, olive pits, even pruning residues. We use the pomace as fertilizer, the pits as biomass. We’re planning a biogas plant powered by waste,” Vieste said.

“Some of these practices were used in the past. Today, they are becoming essential again. It’s not just an environmental choice, it’s also an economic one,” he added. “The relationship with consumers is another cornerstone. The farm offers tastings and guided tours of the world of olive oil. Vieste said that consumers are changing as their awareness about olive oil grows.”

“Today, visitors often arrive already informed. They know what to look for, and they recognize defects. Ten years ago, it wasn’t like that,” Vieste recalled. “It’s a cultural effort that’s bearing fruit,” he added.

The Vieste family can now showcase visitors the results of many years of producing high-quality olive oil.

“Authenticity cannot be improvised. It is the result of history, difficult choices, and daily work,” Vieste said. “We continue along this path, convinced that Italian extra virgin olive oil still has so much to say to the world.”

The Italian producers and millers received the highest number of awards for the tenth year in a row, making their entry in the Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils with a record 163 Gold Awards and 37 Silver Awards. 

They also have submitted the highest number of entries, 258, just two short of the record 260 entries set in 2021.

Such significant figures crown a successful decade, during which farmers across the country have consistently proven their quality and demonstrated an ever-growing expertise in crafting outstanding blends and monovarietals. 

Overcoming pressing issues, such as the effects of climate change and increased production costs, they have remained true to the value of sustainability, implementing organic and regenerative practices that are now widely adopted among top-tier producers.

The 2025 NYIOOC saw a massive participation of producers from central and southern regions of the country, including Tuscany, Puglia, Sicily, Umbria, Campania and Lazio. 

Entries also came from Liguria, Marche and Abruzzo, as well as the island of Sardinia, and the northern regions of Emilia-Romagna, Veneto and Trentino-Alto Adige.

“We had a great harvest, thanks to a good distribution of rainfall throughout the year, not excessively long dry periods and that, in any case, prevented olive fruit fly outbreaks,” said  Daniel Ronca of Frantoio Il Mandorlo.

“The flowering was very good both in terms of ‘mignolatura’ (bud growth) and pollination, so let’s say it was an ideal year,” he added.

His family’s company received a Gold Award for Il Mandorlo Bio, an organic blend primarily composed of Frantoio and Moraiolo, with smaller percentages of Leccino and Pendolino.

Scattered over six hectares of organic land, their 2,000 olive trees thrive on the Florentine hills, north of the Tuscan capital, where the company mill was established in 1974. Today, the facility boasts the latest generation technology.

“We also work for third parties, and some of our clients participated and won awards at the NYIOOC,” said Ronca, who has been in charge of the milling operations since 2019. 

“This adds to the satisfaction of obtaining our Gold. We decided to participate in the World Competition because it offers prestige and recognition, as well as through tools like the Olive Oil Times World Ranking,” he added. “Since we have customers in the U.S. and worldwide, our participation was aimed precisely at giving them further proof of the quality of our oil.”

In the adjacent town of Pontassieve, the hamlet of Sieci is home to the organic producer La Gramigna, which received a Gold Award for its Olio Grullo, a Maurino monovarietal.

This and other native varieties, such as Leccino, Frantoio, Moraiolo and Pendolino, for a total of 6,000 olive trees, many of which are centuries old, are cultivated on the hills east of Florence by Renata Conti and her family.

“This oil is the result of a great harvest, probably the best of the last years, both in terms of quantity and quality, but also of the great care that we put in producing our extra virgin olive oils in our small, state-of-the-art mill,” she emphasized. “The NYIOOC is an important showcase on the international market, and this award pays off our commitment to quality.”

“We have chosen this name for our oil because we like to joke a bit,” Conti pointed out, referring to grullo, a regional word often used affectionately to describe a loopy person. “The label, which my son designed, includes a ‘funny story’ that changes every year.”

Deep corporate values counterbalance light-heartedness in packaging. The company is firmly committed to protecting the environment, maintaining soil health and preserving the landscape.

“Our orchards are sustainably managed, and renewable energy sources power our facilities,” Conti said. “Furthermore, we are engaged in safeguarding the beauty of this landscape, both carrying out recovery interventions of abandoned olive orchards and planting new trees, also aiming at restoring the hydrogeological cycle.”

In northern Lazio’s Tuscia, an excellent harvest earned Pietro Re top honors for Tamia Gold Organic, at its tenth accolade, and Tamia Caninese Organic, at its seventh Gold Award.

“I am glad to say that this is our tenth successful World Competition and we rank seventh among the Italian companies in the World Ranking,” Re said.

At the Sergio Delle Monache farm in Vetralla, he enhances native varieties, including Caninese, used to create the namesake award-winning monovarietal, along with Maurino, Frantoio, Bolzone and Leccino, some of which are accurately blended to create the flagship blend, Gold Organic.

Favorable weather during the warm months secured an excellent fruit development. The olives were then crushed in a latest-generation mill in the area.

“The World Competition is a global reference point and gives us producers visibility, also thanks to [its] effective communication system,” Re noted. “Indeed, we became known to our importers thanks to the Best in Class that we won at our first participation in 2014, and from that moment on, we have participated every year.”

Producers in the south had to face more challenging weather conditions, primarily due to drought, which in some cases led to lower production volumes; nonetheless, quality remained high.

Among the Apulian extra virgin olive oils recognized in the Official Guide to the World’s Best Olive Oils, three monovarietals were produced by I Pavoni in Cerignola: Pavoni Masseria Fortificata Coratina, at its seventh Gold Award in a row; Pavoni Masseria Fortificata Peranzana, at its second Gold Award; and Pavoni Masseria Fortificata Leccino, which received a Silver Award (its sixth accolade).

“We had a medium to low production in terms of quantity, but the quality was still excellent,” owner Giovanni Simeone said. “Last summer was dry, but we could irrigate the orchards and overcome this issue. Drought is certainly one of the most urgent challenges at the moment. Therefore, we recently invested in building a new well and improving our irrigation system.”

An ancient masseria lies at the heart of the estate, which encompasses 30 hectares of organic olive groves featuring 9,000 trees of various varieties, including the native Coratina, Peranzana, and Bella di Cerignola, as well as Ascolana, Nocellara and Leccino.

“After converting to organic farming, at our first participation at the NYIOOC years ago, we obtained a Gold Award. It was thanks to this competition that we found our current importer and entered the international market,” Simeone revealed, adding that today they export almost 60 percent of their production to the United States.

In Sicily, the Mandranova farm is situated a few kilometers from the southern coast of the island, in Palma di Montechiaro, in the province of Agrigento.

“This year, we participated in the World Competition with Selezione, a new blend that we have created in the mill with our Nocellara, Biancolilla, Cerasuola and Giarraffa,” co-founder Silvia di Vincenzo specified after receiving a Gold Award for this extra virgin olive oil made up of autochthonous varieties.

Promoting biodiversity and protecting the environment are core values of the family company. The Mandranova estate spans approximately 180 hectares and encompasses nearly 40 hectares of olive groves, many of which are centuries old. Younger trees have been recently added to increase production.

“We can better manage the quality of our products thanks to an irrigation system and careful monitoring of the orchards,” Di Vincenzo said. “Very high temperatures and drought are ever more frequent, making the farming operations more challenging. Nevertheless, we are structured to cope with all the variables at play. We check on the olives daily, and we carry out an early harvest. The fruit is crushed in our state-of-the-art mill, which allows us to set every detail of the production process.”

The Sicilian farmer explained how sustainable farming practices have become not only necessary to preserve the environment, but also beneficial in improving soil health.

“We let the spontaneous herbs grow, and the no-tillage technique helps us keep the soil moisture high,” she said. “We mow the crop a couple of times a year, which acts as a natural fertilization.”

Farmers from the northern regions had to contend with various weather challenges, but thanks to careful production management, the results were still outstanding.

San Massimo, located in the south of Valpolicella, near Lake Garda, is where Azienda Agricola Ca’ Crespana produces Paneolio Amethyst and Paneolio Peridot, as well as Leccino and Grignano monovarietals, both of which have received a Gold Award.

“We are really happy about these awards,” said Johannes Pan, the co-owner of the family company. “They are an important confirmation of the work we do every day with passion.” 

“We always face the challenges of agriculture with enthusiasm, to constantly improve,” he added. “The bar is always raised higher, and this motivates us. These awards also serve as a significant showcase in the international market. Even if our main focus remains the regional market, we are happy to make our products known beyond the borders.”

The nearby lake creates a Mediterranean microclimate ideal for the olive trees, which enjoy the wide temperature range between day and night typical of these northern latitudes. Very calcareous and well-drained soils, shaped by glaciers millions of years ago, offer optimal conditions for olive farming.

“Last crop year was quite challenging – we had more rain than in recent years,” Pan said. “In agriculture, everything can change radically from one year to the next, and you always start from scratch.” 

“Thanks to targeted agronomic measures carried out by my brother and a very disciplined harvest, we still managed to obtain excellent quality,” he concluded. “This shows how important experience, flexibility and teamwork are.”

Xylella monitoring operations conducted across the Puglia region allowed local researchers to identify an early infection, described as a “point-source outbreak.”

A point source outbreak is when an infected tree is the only one showing signs of infection among hundreds of trees tested in the area.

Local institutions confirmed that the bacterium found in Minervino Murge belongs to Xylella fastidiosa subspecies pauca, the same strain that has affected millions of Apulian trees for over a decade.

According to local authorities, the most probable cause of infection is the spittlebug, an insect considered the vector of the bacterium. Once infected with Xylella, the insect remains infective for the rest of its life.

The discovery has alarmed the local community, as the Bari province is at the heart of Italy’s most important olive-producing area.

It has been reported that the broad implementation of mandatory prevention protocols to contain the spittlebug population has considerably slowed down the bacterium.

Still, Xylella fastidiosa pauca continues heading north. Over the past decade, it has advanced approximately 250 kilometers, from the first sites where Xylella was identified to the latest infection in Minervino.

“The fear we had long expressed has unfortunately become a tragic reality. The deadly Xylella fastidiosa bacterium has reached the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani. It was at the gates of Bari, and now it’s here with us,” Gaetano Riglietti, secretary-general of the agricultural workers’ union Flai-Cgil, wrote in a statement.

While the spittlebug is known to move only short distances on its own, it is often attracted to cars and trucks; clinging to them might allow it to carry Xylella over longer distances.

Current European Union and local regulations mandate that the infected tree be removed and that an infected zone be declared within a 50-meter radius.

Before the tree is removed, the entire 50-meter area is sprayed to eradicate any potential vector insects.

Within this zone, all plants susceptible to Xylella infection are sampled. Within a 400-meter radius, extensive sampling of olive trees and other potential hosts is also conducted.

Additionally, a buffer zone, an area where special containment protocols apply, now extends 2.5 kilometers from the point of infection.

“Minervino Murge must be included among the municipalities of the Bari, Taranto and Brindisi provinces where mandatory agricultural practices must be carried out, including plowing, tilling, harrowing or shredding to reduce the population of the spittlebug,” noted the farming association Coldiretti.

In its statement, Coldiretti emphasized that mechanical and phytosanitary prevention practices, visual and insect monitoring, plant sampling and the removal of infected olive trees, along with new tools for early detection of outbreaks, are the only ways to slow the spread of the infection, since there is still no cure for this bacterial disease.

According to another farming association, CIA Puglia, current prevention measures and anti-Xylella actions are not sufficient.

“We urgently need the government to appoint a special commissioner capable of driving a real breakthrough in the plan for containment and regeneration,” wrote Gennaro Sicolo, president of CIA Puglia and national vice president of CIA Agricoltori Italiani, in a statement sent to the press.

According to Sicolo, it is time for “extraordinary resources and powers.”

“In the interest of Apulian farmers, the Puglia region and the government must work together to secure the necessary attention and resources from the European Union to fund scientific research that will finally lead to a definitive solution to stop the bacterium,” Sicolo said.

He warned that, if left unchecked, the northward spread of the bacterium could threaten the entire Apulian olive oil industry, with consequences for employment, production and even social stability.

“As a trade union organization, we are deeply concerned about the potential consequences for employment, because even limited cases like this, though hopefully isolated, still create alarm,” Riglietti said.

“Beyond that, olive growing is not only our territorial vocation; it is also a defining feature of our landscape, history and the very culture of this part of Puglia,” he concluded.

It causes the deadly Olive Quick Decline Syndrome (OQDS), which has led to widespread outbreaks in Europe over the past 15 years, and is estimated to have an annual economic impact of more than €5.5 billion.

The origins of the bacterium in Europe and globally

Xylella fastidiosa is one of only two known species of Xylella; the other is Xylella taiwanensis, which causes pear leaf scorch in Asian pears on the island of Taiwan.

An aerobic, Gram-negative bacterium that grows in the water transport tissues of plants (xylem), X. fastidiosa is known to cause numerous plant diseases worldwide. 

The bacteria can travel freely through plants via the xylem, constantly multiplying as they do so. 

Once their numbers reach a critical level, the resulting biofilm blocks the xylem, leading to water stress and deficiencies in elements such as zinc and iron, which cause many of the symptoms associated with the diseases the pathogen is linked to.

The first reports of such a disease occurred in 1892 when an unknown plague wiped out approximately 14,000 hectares (34,600 acres) of California vineyards. 

This “Anaheim disease” was later named Pierce’s disease after Newton Pierce, the bacteriologist brought in to study the outbreak. 

Pierce correctly surmised that a microscopic infectious agent caused the disease, although he was unable to isolate or identify the specific agent.

Assumed to be a virus for most of the 20th century, it was not until 1973 that X. Fastidiosa was recognized as a bacterium. It was not until 1987 that the bacterium was formally described and named Xylella fastidiosa by Wells et al. 

Since then, 696 plant species from 88 botanical families have been identified as suitable hosts for the pathogen.

Among the diseases known to be caused by Xylella are several of significant agricultural and economic importance. These include the aforementioned Pierce’s disease, which currently causes the California wine-making industry estimated annual losses of $104 (€92) million, olive leaf scorch and OQDS.

OQDS causes withering and desiccation of olive leaves, twigs and branches, preventing the trees from bearing fruit and eventually leading to the collapse and death of the tree.

Worst-case predictive models show total economic losses of up to €5.6 billion in Italy alone by 2070, and an estimated 100,000 jobs have already been lost due to outbreaks in the country.

Due to its destructive effects and its ability to rapidly adapt to new environments and hosts, Xylella fastidiosa is regulated in the E.U. as a quarantine organism. Its introduction into, and movement within, the union territory is prohibited by law.

How Xylella spreads and where it is currently found

Native to Central America, Xylella fastidiosa is transmitted between host plants by xylem-feeding insects from the Cicadellidae (leafhopper) and Cercopidae (spittlebug and froghopper) families. 

Such insects are capable of only rudimentary flight over short distances (about 100 meters), but have been recorded traveling much longer distances when carried by the wind. Bacterial transfer has also been shown to occur below ground via root grafts.

Long-distance spread most often occurs through the movement of infected plants. This is believed to be how the pathogen was introduced to Italy and other European nations.

In October 2013, Xylella fastidiosa was found infecting olive trees in the region of Puglia in southern Italy. 

This was the first time the bacterium had been reported within the European Union. The disease caused a rapid decline in olive grove yields, and by April 2015, it was affecting the whole province of Lecce and other zones of Puglia.

The subspecies involved in Italy has been identified as X. fastidiosa subsp. pauca, a strain that shows a marked preference for olive trees and warm climates. This subspecies has since been listed under the Agricultural Bioterrorism Protection Act in the United States because of its devastating potential.

In response to the Italian outbreaks, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) convened an extraordinary scientific workshop in November 2015. 

More than 100 scientists from around the world attended the event to identify major knowledge gaps and discuss research priorities regarding the pathogen. 

During the same month, the EFSA concluded from ongoing experiments in Puglia that grapevines were a possible reservoir of Xylella in the region.

By October 2015, the pathogen had reached Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur on the mainland of France, where the subspecies X. fastidiosa subsp. multiplex was found to have infected myrtle-leaf milkwort, a plant species introduced from South Africa. 

The following year, the bacterium was identified in Corsica and Germany. In 2017, it was detected on the Spanish islands of Mallorca and Ibiza, and subsequently on the Spanish mainland.

Xylella has since been found in olive trees and other host plants across the Iberian Peninsula, as well as in Lebanon and Israel in the Middle East.

The role of climate change in Xylella’s spread

Substantial research indicates that climate change increases the risk of plant disease outbreaks, with changes in temperature and humidity being the primary drivers.

As global temperatures rise, the geographic range of many pathogens expands, exposing new regions and plant species to diseases previously restricted to warmer climates. 

Higher temperatures are generally conducive to the proliferation and propagation of fungal and bacterial species, especially when combined with elevated humidity. 

Additionally, higher minimum temperatures extend the seasonally active period of organisms and increase their ability to survive the winter and persist in the environment. This applies not only to pathogens but also to their vectors.

In addition to favoring many pathogens, higher temperatures can weaken a plant’s natural defensive mechanisms through processes such as heat and water stress, making them more vulnerable to infection and more likely to suffer greater damage and higher mortality rates.

Specifically regarding Xylella fastidiosa, a recent climate-driven epidemiological model analyzed the vulnerability of European lands to the disease in different climate change scenarios by assessing the climatic conditions favored by both the pathogen and its primary vector, Philaenus spumarius, also known as the meadow froghopper or meadow spittlebug. This insect has previously been identified as the vector responsible for spreading the bacterium in Italian olive groves.

The study found that a global mean temperature rise of 1.5 °C increases the percentage of total land area at risk in Europe to 0.32 percent, while a rise of 4 °C increases the area to 1.87 percent. 

Within the range of temperature increases analyzed, a tipping point of a 3 °C increase was identified. Beyond this threshold, the researchers found that the risk of the pathogen spreading north of the Mediterranean region becomes remarkably higher, allowing it to spread rapidly into previously unaffected areas.

The authors also assert that before the mid-1990s, European climatic conditions, except those of the Mediterranean islands, most likely prevented the bacterium from establishing itself on the continent.

Efforts to control Xylella fastidiosa

As there is no known cure for diseased plants, current control measures focus on prevention and containment. 

The most effective strategy in common use requires both the comprehensive removal of infected plant matter, which can act as a reservoir for the bacterium, and the control of insect vector populations.

In addition to the complete removal of plant matter known to be infected, the EFSA recommends creating a “buffer zone” of at least 100 meters from which all susceptible plant species are also removed and destroyed.

Due to the virulent nature of the pathogen, experts recommend using protective measures when removing and transporting all organic material during this process.

The process of controlling insect vectors is similarly involved, requiring not only the elimination of the organisms themselves but also their habitats. 

This is necessary due to the polyphagous nature and multi-stage lifecycles of such insects. Philaenus spumarius, for example, is known to feed on at least 170 host plants and develops through five separate stages after hatching.

Treatment and research for Xylella fastidiosa

Combinations of changes in cropping methods, bactericidal treatments, and interventions aimed at enhancing the physiological state of the host have shown promise in impacting disease development, even to the point of allowing harvesting to resume. To date, however, none have proven successful at eradicating the pathogen in an infected plant.

Research into treatment methods is severely curtailed by Xylella’s quarantine status, especially within the E.U. Other EU restrictions include the prohibition on using antibiotics for plant protection. Fields of research, therefore, vary from one geographical region to another.

In the United States, where antibiotic use is authorized for use in plants, information is available from trials of antibiotics such as oxytetracycline, tetracycline and streptomycin in the foliar treatment of Pierce’s disease and of microinjection of oxytetracycline in the treatment of Xylella-induced leaf scorch in American elm. 

Although such trials have demonstrated remission of symptoms, none have succeeded in eliminating infection, and symptoms returned after treatment was stopped.

A major initiative within Europe is the Biovexo Project, a Bio-Based Industries Joint Undertaking (BBI-JU) Innovation Action launched in 2020 under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program.

Aimed specifically at combating Xylella in olive cultivation, BIOVEXO is developing two main classes of environmentally-friendly biopesticides: “X‑biopesticides,” which target the pathogen directly, and “V‑biopesticides,” which target the spittlebugs that act as the pathogen’s primary transmission vector. 

The component substances being trialed are bacterial strains, a microbial metabolite, plant extracts and an entomopathogenic fungus.

In a novel approach, recent research in Brazil involves N‑acetylcysteine, a common mucolytic drug used to treat paracetamol overdose and to loosen thick mucus in human cases of disorders such as pneumonia and bronchitis. 

While the mechanisms responsible are not yet fully understood, initial results have shown the effectiveness of the drug in disrupting bacterial biofilms when applied by irrigation to hydroponic or field crops.

Given the role that biofilms play in protecting bacteria against antimicrobial treatments and ultimately leading to bacterial resistance, this area of research may be on the rise, as breaking down the protective biofilm matrix could significantly increase the effectiveness of treatments targeting the Xylella bacterium directly.

Until a means is found to accurately and systematically kill the pathogen throughout its host, as this research suggests might one day be possible, quarantine and destruction of infected plants will likely remain the single most effective method of control.

Nestled in the Dauni Mountains in the province of Foggia, Orsara is home to a community of 2,500 residents, known for unusual health and longevity.

“The idea came to us while visiting and restoring the agricultural pathways in our countryside,” Michele Terlizzi, delegated councilor for agriculture, veterinary doctor and olive grower, told Olive Oil Times. 

“There are so many centuries-old trees, families involved in olive oil production, beautiful landscapes and olive mills,” he added.

Most local olive oil production comes from more than 20,000 olive trees, predominantly of the Ogliarola cultivar, with some Coratina and Leccino varieties.

Local extra virgin olive oil is known for its exceptionally low acidity, often below 0.2 percent.

“As the municipal administration, we realized that we had the opportunity to give our unique olive oil tradition the place it deserves in Orsara’s present and future,” he said.

The first step has been formally joining the nationwide network of Città dell’Olio (Olive Oil Municipalities).

This well-established association actively promotes sustainability and highlights the unique history and features of olive-growing territories across Italy.

“The second step was involving local professional producers, some of whom immediately embraced a path that would lead to the creation of an Orsara-specific olive oil brand,” Terlizzi said.

Producers and local administrators are developing guidelines to institutionalize agricultural practices rooted in local traditions to achieve this goal.

“It’s not ready yet, but the guidelines will include provisions such as a zero-pesticides policy,” Terlizzi said.

“Our methods are based on tradition, centered around traditional orchards. Intensive olive farming isn’t part of our tradition,” he added.

According to the council, the new Orsara olive oil brand will emphasize soil nourishment and biodiversity-enhancing techniques, such as shredding prunings instead of removing them and employing treatments based on soil analysis.

Kaolin and zeolite treatments will replace chemical substances that may harm biodiversity.

“By adopting shared practices within the same territory, growers will support each other,” Terlizzi said. “For example, if a grower receives an order for large quantities of extra virgin olive oil, they could partner with other local producers to fulfill it.” 

“Another important step is creating job opportunities in the olive oil sector for younger generations,” he added.

The municipality has partnered with Giorgio Pannelli’s pruning school to hold upcoming courses directly in Orsara.

“The council will fund the courses, enabling more residents to become certified olive pruners,” Terlizzi said.

Pannelli, a researcher at the Olive Research Center (CRA) in Perugia, central Italy, is among the promoters of the simplified polyconic vase pruning technique, a fast and highly efficient method gaining popularity across Italy.

According to local officials, the active participation of local growers is a crucial factor in the initiative’s success.

Mario Simonelli, mayor of Orsara, emphasized that the project’s greatest asset is the enthusiasm and energy of young farmers.

“Young producers are adopting innovative approaches focused on organic farming and multifunctionality,” he said. “We intend to support this path, enhancing our ancient traditions and turning them into modern opportunities for growth.”

“On average, olive growers here are 40 years old,” Terlizzi highlighted, emphasizing their initiative and contemporary approach to agriculture.

This is significant, considering that the National Agency for Agricultural Market Services (Ismea) has identified the aging population of olive growers as one of the main challenges facing the Italian olive sector.

This demographic trend is believed to hamper the adoption of new technologies and innovative practices in olive oil production.

In 2021, Ismea calculated that for every olive grower under 40, there were eleven growers over 65 nationally.

The first producers joining the Orsara initiative are featured in early promotional materials created by the administration. “But the initiative remains open to all local producers who can join at any time,” Terlizzi remarked.

Alongside these initiatives, Orsara officials support expanding olive-growing areas and recovering abandoned groves.

“This morning, we were unloading more than 100 new olive saplings,” Terlizzi said.

Oleotourism will play a significant role in the municipality’s plans.

“Tourists visiting Orsara will not only be able to buy some of the finest extra virgin olive oil from Puglia but will also experience firsthand how it’s produced, visiting the olive groves and the ancient trees from which it comes,” Terlizzi said.

Visitors will also be able to immerse themselves in the history of local olive orchards.

“For example, in the past, local marriage agreements between two families always included an olive orchard as part of the dowry,” Terlizzi recalled. “The aim was clear, new families needed their own olive oil.”

In addition to olives, honey and other agricultural products contributing to residents’ longevity, Orsara offers tours of historical churches, museums and ancient straw-clay ovens.

Additional activities among the olive groves are planned as warmer weather approaches.

“Ultimately, olive oil will allow Italian and international tourists to experience the history and character of Orsara’s unique and beautiful territory,” Terlizzi concluded.

“We are working toward a new beginning, bringing fresh energy and ideas to this land and my grandfather’s olive farm,” said Lapo Pignatelli, owner of La Falca.

Pignatelli’s olive farm is located in the heart of Salento, the Apulian region hardest hit by Xylella fastidiosa.

Paradoxically, the farm’s revitalization is funded by the same trees that dried up after being infected by the bacterium.

“When I returned to the farm after years of absence, the landscape had completely changed. Our centuries-old olive trees had died or were dying, and they had to be removed,” Pignatelli said.

During the removal operations, new ideas emerged. “I couldn’t bear that all that magnificent wood, which nurtured our land for centuries, would just be destroyed,” Pignatelli said.

“All of this needed a different approach. So, I decided to buy a sawmill to recover this wood, and that’s essentially where it all began,” he added.

This is how Tàccaru was founded, a company within the farm that processes dead olive trees and produces wood suitable for construction, decoration, design and art. Last year, Tàccaru contributed €30,000 of revenue to the company.

“We spoke with experts from the National Research Council, and they explained that dead wood cannot transmit Xylella fastidiosa and is completely safe,” Pignatelli said.

Meanwhile, new regional regulations allowed the reuse of a significant volume of high-quality wood from removed olive trees.

“This wood has extraordinary qualities. Its grain makes it visually striking; it’s hard, durable and naturally antibacterial. It already has its niche market among timber enthusiasts,” Pignatelli said.

Other regulations and initiatives enable locals to plant new olive orchards based on four olive varieties that are resilient to Xylella fastidiosa: Leccino, Favolosa, Lecciana and Leccio del Corno.

Pignatelli’s farm has restarted olive cultivation, beginning with five hectares of Favolosa and Leccino. “Then we learned about Lecciana, which can also be grown intensively,” he noted.

“One of our biggest challenges is the lack of workforce. We needed a fresh start with technology and mechanization,” Pignatelli explained.

As a result, new high-density orchards have been planted, groves that a small team can manage efficiently.

“If you want specialized workers who stay with you long-term, you need to offer more than just seasonal employment,” Pignatelli said.

Thus, the Tàccaru project helps the farm retain employees, who split their time between the orchards and the sawmill.

“We will soon invest in oleotourism,” Pignatelli added, hinting at renovation work currently underway at the family’s historic farmhouse.

“Many young entrepreneurs are restarting from similar points, replanting olive trees. There’s a new energy in the area,” he said. “This season, we hope for our first real olive harvest. Of course, we remain at the mercy of the weather.”

Similar enthusiasm drives the project initiated by the OlivaMi association, aiming to breathe new life into wood harvested from Xylella-affected trees while revitalizing the olive economy.

“The original idea behind OlivaMi came from British tourists who fell in love with Salento. They saw our region become increasingly darkened and sad year after year due to Xylella,” Chiara Nocco, community manager at OlivaMi, told Olive Oil Times.

The OlivaMi project began its initial fundraising round in January 2022 to help replant trees in Salento’s affected areas.

“The association promotes adopting olive varieties resilient to Xylella,” Nocco said. For each tree adopted, the association provides the adopter with one liter of extra virgin olive oil.

“We label each adopted tree with the adopter’s name, the tree’s name and a unique adoption code,” Nocco explained.

Funds raised support local farmers who care for these trees and finance planting new orchards throughout the region.

“Since 2022, more than 25,000 people have participated in the project, over 200 companies actively contribute and more than 40,000 olive trees have been donated to over 250 olive farmers,” Nocco said.

“The wood from the olive trees affected by Xylella, which are now being eradicated, represents an important resource that can have a valuable second life,” she added.

“We’ve collaborated with local artisans to transform some of this wood into unique items that tell the story of our territory’s resilience,” she said.

OlivaMi’s online shop features a wide range of products crafted from olive wood and other pieces used to create plaques displaying the names and logos of collaborating companies.

“Our mission is to transform and give value to every part of the olive tree, maintaining a strong connection between nature, tradition and innovation,” Nocco emphasized.

“Our association was established to support small landowners who cultivate olives out of passion, preserving traditions handed down from our parents and grandparents,” she added. “People without assistance from the state or the European Union.”

Small landowners in Salento can contact the association through a request form on its website.

“All the trees donated so far have been purchased with funds raised through adoptions by families, businesses, or through celebratory gifts,” Nocco said.

OlivaMi’s members are committed to employing the latest technologies in the field and business development.

“Technological innovation is crucial for reforestation and land enhancement, making the processes more efficient, sustainable and easier to monitor,” Nocco said.

The association utilizes advanced precision agriculture tools to monitor tree health, optimize irrigation and prevent potential diseases.

“Blockchain technology also plays an important role,” Nocco said. “We launched a spin-off project, Carborea, which enables us to generate and certify carbon credits from new olive plantings.”

According to the association, technology is pivotal in shaping a brighter future for the region. “It also makes the process more engaging, helping us involve younger generations,” Nocco concluded.

In some cases, large volumes of olives do not deliver the usual yields, while in others, typical yields come from fewer olives.

Producers in the north of the country lament conversion yields well below average.

“This year, I harvested significantly more olives in our northern groves than in the southern ones,” said Pietro Polizzi, owner of Olio Enotre, which has groves in Veneto in the north and Calabria in the south.

“The olives were healthy, with no signs of olive fruit fly,” he added. “However, the problem lies in conversion yields, which were unusually low – around seven to eight percent.” 

Conversion yields refer to the amount of olive oil extracted from 100 kilograms of olives. A seven percent yield means seven kilograms of olive oil are obtained from milling 100 kilograms of olives.

“These low conversion rates will inevitably affect the final product price. On the bright side, the quality remains very high,” Polizzi said.

Ceil Friedman, the co-owner of Erminio Cordioli in the Verona area of Veneto, also lamented lower-than-expect yields from her harvest.

“The olives were beautiful, and we are delighted with the quality of the oil,” she said. “It was tough work, especially with rainfall frequently interrupting the harvest. Yet, we were caught off guard by the lower-than-expected yields.”

“This issue is affecting all the producers in the area, I can assure you,” Friedman added. “Varieties like the local Grignano usually yield about ten percent, but this time, it reached six.”

Furio Battelini, the technical director at Agraria Riva del Garda, whose groves are situated just above Lake Garda, also observed unexpectedly low yields.

“We experienced fairly abundant olive production this year, as the conditions since spring were favorable,” he said. “The olive fruit fly did not recover from the peak summer heat in August so that it couldn’t cause damage.” 

“Yet, we’ve seen very low yields at the mill, down to eight percent, whereas we typically expect something between 14 and 15 percent,” he added.

Battelini attributed this phenomenon to the weather patterns since September when sunny days became rare. “The lack of sunlight likely affected the ripening of the olives, preventing them from reaching full maturity,” he said.

According to Battelini, producers focused on quality should still opt for an early harvest in such conditions, as waiting can decrease the oil’s phenolic content. 

“We also experienced heavy rainfall, which prematurely caused olives to fall from the trees,” he said. “Those who didn’t harvest early likely lost a significant amount of fruit.” 

“The low yields have dampened the typically joyful harvest season for many,” Battelini added. “The olive oil quality remains excellent, with very elegant and clean profiles. However, it’s a shame that we won’t be able to fill our storage tanks this year.”

In central Italy, production volumes are reportedly satisfying, but lower conversion yields are puzzling growers, as large, healthy olives retain a lot of water. Once pressed, oil yields are lower than anticipated.

Producers in this region attribute this to the abundant and prolonged rains in early autumn after a hot, dry summer.

“Our early harvest usually results in lower yields, but this year, we’re down to half the usual,” said Marco Prosseda of DueNoveSei, a company in Moricone in the heart of Lazio’s Roman Sabina.

“After a favorable summer, persistent rains arrived in September and October, causing the olives to swell with water,” he added. “Ironically, despite an abundance of fruit, 30 percent more than last year, we’re producing nearly as much oil as last year but with significantly more olives.” 

Midway through the harvest, clear trends have emerged, according to Prosseda. 

“First, the groves are laden with beautiful, healthy olives; second, we’re producing high-quality products with great organoleptic and nutraceutical profiles; third, from 100 kilograms of fruit, we’re extracting just nine liters of oil, a nine percent yield, when we usually reach around 15 percent.”

A similar situation can be observed in Montelibretti, another Roman Sabina town where Antonio Mancini co-manages the Marcoaldi Roberta farm.

“The harvest is progressing well, with many healthy olives on the trees,” Mancini said. “We expect one of our best-quality harvests in recent years.”

“However, heavy rains ten days ago hit the olives at their peak, causing them to swell,” he added. “After months of drought, their volumes doubled in just 12 to 24 hours, and their weight increased due to water absorption.”

Further north in the region of Tuscia, Pietro Re, founder of Tamìa, cultivates several olive varieties that yielded a plentiful harvest and optimal quality, though with lower yields.

“Every olive oil season has its own story, with new challenges each year, and this one is no exception,” Re said.

In Tuscany, Simone Botti of Le Fontacce in the Arezzo area attributes the low yields to drought.

“We began harvesting Leccino, an early variety, on October 16th, obtaining a six percent yield,” he said. “Now, as we work on a blend of Moraiolo, Leccino and Frantoio, we’re achieving yields of 8.5 to nine percent, compared to our previous average of 13 percent.”

According to Botti, the frequent and severe summer droughts have affected yields. He believes the dry summer months affected fruit development, resulting in a disproportionate ratio of pit to pulp, with more pit and less pulp.

“Due to the dry summer, oil accumulation didn’t occur at the right time,” he explained. “When the rains finally arrived, they were too late.”

Massimo Ragno, panel leader and purchasing manager at Monini, noted that lower-than-expected yields across central Italy were due to significant rainfall, followed by warm temperatures, which slowed the drying process and increased the water content in olives.

“Olive quantities and quality were excellent this year, with no fruit fly,” added Alessandro Melchiorri, owner of Melchiorri Olio in Spoleto, Umbria. “However, rainfall at the end of October delayed the harvest and kept yields low, between eight and 11 percent. This will inevitably impact prices, and it won’t be easy to explain to customers.” 

“Compared to last year, we’re seeing significantly more olives, but given the low yields, it’s still hard to predict the season’s overall outcome,” he said.

Ragno emphasized the impact of the intense rainfall both before and during the harvest. 

“Olive oil forms between August and September. After that period, it’s mostly the water content that changes,” he said. “When it rains, olive trees can efficiently use the water, which leads to good yields.” 

“However, if heavy rains come just before the harvest, as was the case in several areas, this process is disrupted, and the water ends up saturating the fruits,” Ragno added. “In some cases, yields were lower because the olives contained way more water than usual.”

“Central-northern production, particularly in Tuscany and Lazio, is still progressing well in terms of quality and quantity,” he noted.

Comforting news also came from the central-southern region of Molise. 

“The harvest is progressing smoothly, even though volumes are slightly lower compared to the best seasons, largely due to weather conditions,” said Marina Colonna, owner of Colonna Farm.

“The yields are average, but the quality is excellent,” she said. “The olives have retained intense organoleptic characteristics, producing olive oil with a rich, complex aromatic profile. This year’s oils have more pronounced green notes and a persistent spiciness.”

In the southern regions, where most of the country’s olive oil is traditionally produced, growers faced challenges due to scorching and dry conditions throughout the season. Moreover, this year is an ‘off-year’ in the alternate bearing cycle of olive trees, resulting in less fruit.

In Puglia, the country’s most significant olive oil-producing region, conversion yields are between 12 and 16 percent. However, the reduced volume of fruit is affecting overall production levels.

“We estimate that Puglia will produce less than half of its usual output,” Ragno said. “The combination of the alternate bearing cycle and adverse conditions during flowering, along with a very dry season, has severely impacted production.”

Despite these challenges, some quality growers have managed to adapt. 

“Thanks to intensive agronomic practices, we’ve achieved good results in terms of quality and quantity,” said Emmanuel Sanarica, owner of Sanarica Farm.

“The use of forecasting systems and environmental sensors has allowed us to maintain production levels consistent with previous years,” he added, underscoring technology’s crucial role in adapting to climate unpredictability.

“High temperatures throughout the phenological stages were a major challenge, even affecting the harvest, which we started 30 days earlier than usual, sacrificing yields,” Sanarica explained. “Nonetheless, we’ve managed to produce highly aromatic oils rich in polyphenols.”

Growers encountered similar difficulties in the southern region of Calabria, Italy’s second-largest olive oil-producing area.

“In our region, we’re seeing a significant drop in olive volumes, down to about ten percent of what we expected. Fortunately, the quality remains optimal,” said Diego Fazio, the co-owner of Tre Olive.

The silver lining is that conversion yields are higher than last season. “This allows us to maintain a very high standard of quality for our extra virgin olive oil, even if quantities are limited,” Fazio added.

“Drought during the summer forced us to implement emergency irrigation, especially for younger trees,” added Maria Cristina Di Giovanni, owner at Podere d’Ippolito.

Most producers in the plains of Lamezia Terme reported decent yields, though the number of olives is significantly reduced.

“Some of our farms suffered considerable damage due to flooding and heavy rainfall at the end of October, which severely tested the resilience of our growers during the olive oil campaign,” Di Giovanni said.

“Our growers also had to manage overflowing streams and landslides that obstructed access routes,” she added. “We’re now wrapping up harvesting and processing operations to ensure that our customers continue to receive the highest quality extra virgin olive oil.”

Since ancient times, vegetables stored in containers such as amphoras have been covered with olive oil. The Romans were well aware of its food-preserving qualities.

Consumers of that era could enjoy off-season foods, and oil-preserved items fueled the food trade for centuries.

Moreover, olive oil has been readily available in Puglia for centuries. Today, the region remains the heart of olive oil production in Italy.

Nowadays, produce preserved in olive oil, known as sottoli, represent a significant portion of the food market in Puglia and throughout Italy.

Recent data indicates that 72 percent of Italians routinely consume sottoli, with sales exceeding 84,800 tons per annum and a total turnover for Italian producers of nearly €700 million.

“The most popular sottoli originate from the Apulian traditions; they include artichoke, cardamom, eggplant and tomato,” said Gennario Belfiore, owner of his family’s food preserves shop in Matera.

Lampascioni bulbs, dipped and preserved in extra virgin olive oil, are sold online globally.

These vegetables grow underground, almost exclusively in Puglia’s arid and calcareous soil and neighboring Basilicata. They possess a unique flavor, intense and slightly bitter, and are a staple of Apulian cuisine.

Apulian tradition also features turnips, chili peppers, ground chili, dried tomatoes, zucchini, garlic, spicy garlic, wild vegetables, onions, capers, chicory, puntarelle chicory and peppers.

“There are hundreds of different sottoli crafted by Apulian growers and preserved with olive oil,” Belfiore said. “Not only vegetables but also cheeses like pecorino and a long list of local recipes which perfectly combine food with a bath of extra virgin olive oil.”

Recipes include dried tomato rolls with capers and anchovies, puntarelle salads and cereal- and legume-based soups.

The in-olive oil preservation technique and its associated flavors became so popular that today, sottoli are used by many regardless of the season; sometimes, they might even be chosen over the equivalent fresh products.

The exquisite nuances of locally grown tomatoes dipped in extra virgin olive oil are featured in the fillings of the local puccia, a very large panino (sandwich) that remains wildly popular.

Lorenzo Maggi, a local cuisine expert, took a bite while looking out at the beautiful coastline of Salento.

While tomatoes are grown throughout the summer and can easily be found fresh on local market shelves, most of the filling in Maggi’s puccia is two years old.

“The tomatoes were so good at the beginning,” he told Olive Oil Times. “And they have been sitting with extra virgin olive oil for over two years. Their flavors were not only retained; they now convey a specific round flavor and a crispy texture of which I am fond.”

Local puccia makers, one of the most popular street food vendors in the southern Italian region, tend to use fresh, seasonal products in their panini. However, some flavors can only come from foods preserved in olive oil.

Moreover, these naturally-preserved products allow them to diversify their pucci beyond the boundaries of seasonal recipes.

“Pizzerias and restaurants also use them year-round, sometimes to give their appetizers a tasty twist, and sometimes to characterize a serving better,” Maggi said.

In recent years, the rising prices of extra virgin olive oil have pushed a significant portion of the industry to focus on different preserving fats.

“It surely makes sense to use extra virgin olive oil for food preserves, but at what cost?” asked Donato Palancia, an oleologist and olive oil technician at Farchioni Olii.

“Olive oil has become a significant cost for food-preserving industries,” he added. “Only a few operators can afford to use it. I see many industries not using extra virgin olive oil anymore, and some not even olive oil.”

Despite the higher costs, Belfiore said extra virgin olive oil differentiates his products.

“It pairs with processing that happens at the optimal moment of maturation, so the qualities of our products are retained,” he said. “The main difference between artisanal in-extra virgin olive oil quality preserves and industrial food preserves available from large retailers is taste, flavor and crispness.”

Like some competitors, Belfiore’s company exports extra virgin olive oil-based sottoli to Europe, the United States and Canada. “We are also seeing growing interest from Japan and New Zealand,” he said.

Belfiore added that sottoli has even helped introduce Mediterranean vegetables to global audiences, specifically citing artichoke sottoli in Japan.

Whether artisanal or industrial in origin, in-oil preserves require precise processing procedures built on understanding the risks posed by the possible growth of bacteria and other microorganisms inside the product.

“All fats are efficient preservation tools for a fundamental reason: they reduce contact with oxygen and therefore minimize oxidation reactions,” said Giancarlo Colelli, a full professor at the Apulian University of Foggia’s Science of Agriculture, Food and Environment department.

Oxidation can alter food, affecting its color and nutritional quality. Exposure to oxygen causes rancidity, a common olive oil defect.

By removing oxygen from the food containers, microorganisms that need oxygen to grow cannot multiply.

“That is not only good news; it can also be bad news,” Colelli warned. “While those microorganisms will not grow, it also means that another class of microorganisms, those that can grow without oxygen, will face much less competition and might develop more easily.”

If the products are not correctly sanitized, toxins could develop and endanger consumers’ lives. Every year in Italy, hundreds of people suffer from intoxication of this kind, almost exclusively from homemade in-oil food preserves.

“I never eat homemade sottoli because following proper production procedures is key, and that does not always happen in a household,” Colelli said. “Producers implement a series of obstacles to prevent the growth of bacteria and toxins.”

Examples of these obstacles include acidification. Whether by adding an acid or normal fermentation, a lower pH conditions the environment, preventing toxins from forming.

“Take, for instance, eggplant in oil. To make a product stable over time, producers acidify the eggplants, usually by cooking them to inactivate enzymes,” Colelli said. “We lower the acidity and add olive oil so molds and most aerobic bacteria do not develop.”

“Once we have the product, we often give it a thorough antioxidant treatment and pasteurization,” he added. “This creates a base that lasts for years.”

While fatty acids are very heat-sensitive, Colelli said extra virgin olive oil still has many protective components.

“Between extra virgin olive oil and non-extra virgin olive oil, the extra virgin oil is certainly better and is therefore recommended,” he said. “Especially for products where thermal energy treatments are not necessarily used at the end of processing, extra virgin olive oil has the great advantage of degrading less, tasting good and having a high nutritional value.”

• Il Sole 24
• Alimenti Salute

The southern regions, responsible for most Italian olive oil production, bear the brunt of these harsh weather conditions.

Coldiretti Puglia, a prominent farmers’ association, has warned that the region’s olive oil production may decline by more than 50 percent.

Numerous rainfed olive trees in Puglia exhibit signs of water stress, with many olives desiccating on the branches.

In regions where irrigation is possible, water remains scarce. Puglia’s water reservoirs have decreased by 57 percent compared to the previous season, leading to significant losses across the agricultural sector.

“Severe and prolonged drought is compelling farmers to undertake emergency irrigation at exorbitant costs, driven by the high fuel prices needed to extract water from wells and transport it via tankers,” Coldiretti warned. “Artesian wells are collapsing, while shallower wells are vanishing, drying up.”

Temperatures have been consistently soaring above seasonal averages, prompting the Italian Military Aviation Weather Forecast Services to repeatedly warn about extraordinary heatwaves.

The behavior of the protected starling species has shifted due to the heat, exacerbating the challenges faced by olive growers.

Large flocks of these birds are now a persistent presence in the countryside, causing significant damage to local agriculture. Coldiretti noted that each bird can consume up to 20 grams of olives daily.

To alleviate the pressure in olive-growing areas already heavily impacted by the weather, the regional council has temporarily lifted bird protection measures, permitting starling hunting during the peak olive harvest period when the damage is most severe.

Oprol, the association of olive producers in Basilicata, cautioned that the critical condition of olive groves observed since last year has escalated into a more intense emergency phase.

“We have already lost the entire olive production for the current season,” said Paolo Colonna, the association’s president. “Moreover, if these weather conditions persist, next season’s production could also be at risk.”

The situation in Sicily is equally dire. The sparse, light rainfall in some areas over the past two weeks has not relieved the parched soil. The dry weather is causing olive trees in several parts of the island to prematurely drop their olives, a natural response to extreme stress.

The entire region’s agriculture is in a state of emergency, with water reserves plummeting to historic lows.

Where feasible, the local government strives to provide some relief to farms while ensuring adequate water availability for the population. The Italian navy has delivered water supplies to the island.

At the same time, wildfires are rampant, posing new risks to forest areas and the population and complicating drought relief efforts.

Coldiretti reported that fires have already ravaged 5,800 hectares of Sicilian land. Olive, fruit and wine production is expected to collapse, with damages to local farmers potentially reaching €3 billion.

Slightly less severe drought and temperature conditions have also affected central regions, including Lazio and Umbria, home to many significant Italian olive oil companies.

In Umbria, spring rainfall and good flowering had initially raised hopes for a successful season despite this year being an ‘off-year’ in the olive trees’ natural alternate bearing cycle.

However, strong winds, extremely high temperatures and dry weather are challenging local olive farmers. In Trevi, one of Umbria’s historic olive-producing areas, many olives show signs of dehydration.

“The current drought is alarming all olive producers in the region,” Paolo Morbidoni, president of the Umbrian Olive Oil Roads, told RAI news service. “At this moment, all growers need to be cautious and act to mitigate the impacts of the drought as much as possible.”

“The situation in our area remains manageable, though the heat is severely testing the resilience of the olive trees,” Luca Perotti, managing director at the award-winning Tuscan producer Pometti, told Olive Oil Times.

“The plants can endure high temperatures and lack of rain, but the fruits are suffering. Despite being abundant this season, they are turning black,” he said. “This is primarily due to consistently high temperatures exceeding 33 ºC to 35 ºC.”

Pometti said he is mitigating the impacts of the drought by using kaolin clay on his olives to shield them from direct sunlight and the olive fruit fly.

“Typically, this product is used to protect against the olive fruit fly, but we have discovered it also shields the fruits from ‘sunburn,’” he said. “At present, we can’t complain about the field conditions. The grassing and mulching from cutting the grass certainly helps retain good soil moisture. The foliage is dense, and satellite images confirm the positive impact of our efforts.”

Conditions vary significantly in some central and northern regions, where different weather patterns, milder temperatures and excessive rainfall have, in some cases, caused substantial damage.

“Italy is a country [at the moment] meteorologically divided in two and an ongoing climate crisis that is severely challenging agricultural businesses,” said Cristiano Fini, the national president of CIA-Agricoltori Italiani, a farmers’ association.

In Veneto, where excessive rainfall has posed challenges for many farms, the current olive season demands a skilled approach to tree management.

“This year, we likely experienced more rainfall in northern Italy than ever before during the first six months. Consequently, the harvest is progressing very well,” Johannes Pan, marketing manager at the award-winning Paneolio, told Olive Oil Times.

“The positive feedback from competition results demonstrates that our agricultural and production approaches are effective, even in varying conditions,” he said. “Over the past five years, we’ve faced everything from severe drought to excessive rainfall.”

Italia Olivicola, the olive growers’ association, predicted that the ‘off-year’ combined with extreme weather conditions would reduce Italian olive oil production by at least 23 percent compared to the previous season.

European Union data indicate that Italy produced 328,000 tons of olive oil in the 2023/24 crop year, significantly above the last five-year average of 307,000 tons.

• Tempo Italia
• Agronotizie

The Carabinieri’s Anti-adulteration and Health Unit (NAS) operatives executed search warrants against seven local people and discovered 71 tons of oily substances, 623 liters of chlorophyll, and equipment to produce large quantities of olive oil-like products illegally.

The police operation was coordinated by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Foggia and involved several provinces across the country.

The investigation began last September and recently enabled NAS to identify and seize nearly 42 tons of adulterated oil.

A large portion of this substance was ready for market distribution. It was sometimes already bottled and made available to the agri-food supply chain, falsely labeled as Italian extra virgin olive oil.

Over the years, the scourge of olive oil counterfeiting has triggered a growing volume of scientific research investigating how counterfeiting occurs and methods to detect adulterated products.

Counterfeiters sometimes add chlorophyll and beta-carotene to seed oils to mimic the color of extra virgin olive oil.

A superficial analysis of these counterfeit products might not detect fraud, as low-quality olive oils are often added to the mixture.

As a result, law enforcement agencies deploy highly sophisticated methods, including spectroscopy, chromatography and even DNA testing.

According to Gennaro Sicolo, president of Italia Olivicola, the NAS investigation underscores the ability of Italian law enforcement agencies to combat food crimes efficiently.

“The Carabinieri operation against fake extra virgin olive oil and oil colored with chlorophyll is a shining example of the excellent functioning of the control system against food fraud,” he said.

Sicolo stressed the importance of such operations given the high value of Apulian olive oil production.

With its 60 million olive trees and numerous award-winning olive oil producers, Puglia is Italy’s most significant producing region, accounting for approximately half of the national production.

According to Sicolo, the challenge is to raise consumer awareness about the quality and health benefits of high-quality extra virgin olive oil so that cheaper oils with fewer health guarantees are less favored.

The Italian Association of the Edible Oil Industry (Assitol) warned that “the real issue is the reputational damage to the vast majority of companies that operate correctly.”

Anna Cane, president of Assitol’s olive oil group, noted that “ours is one of the most monitored sectors, primarily thanks to SIAN, the national telematic system that monitors the flow of oil entering and leaving Italy.”

“Additionally, eight different public control bodies oversee the oils marketed on the shelves,” she added.

According to Assitol, one of the reasons fraud persists is low consumer awareness surrounding extra virgin olive oil.

“The fact that under-the-counter dealers like those discovered in Cerignola still find buyers in the market shows how little value is attributed to this extraordinary product,” Cane said. “This is yet another reason to promote its knowledge in Italy and worldwide and to support its protection in every possible way.”

Following the seizure of the counterfeit oils, both the CIA and Coldiretti, a farmers’ association, emphasized the importance of certified olive oil production as a safe harbor for consumers.

They referred to the European Union-sanctioned Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI) certifications, which link traditionally produced food and drinks to specific regions and cultivars.

“I continue to appeal to consumers: buy PDO and PGI extra virgin olive oil. To obtain these recognitions, PDO and PGI extra virgin olive oils must adhere to precise and rigorous rules that attest to their high quality and healthiness,” Sicolo said.

Alfonso Cavallo, president of Coldiretti Puglia, said law enforcement is crucial to protecting consumer health.

“Food fraud is a particularly hateful crime because it endangers people’s health, it is based on deception and primarily affects those with limited financial means who are forced to resort to low-cost food,” he said.

This is not the first time Italian law enforcement has uncovered significant illegal operations focusing on olive oil counterfeiting. In December, authorities in Italy and Spain seized 260,000 liters of adulterated olive oil and arrested 11 individuals in coordinated raids.

However, experts have warned that the combination of low production in the past two crop years, dwindling olive oil stocks and high prices have created enticing conditions for criminal organizations to commit olive oil fraud.

• CIA Puglia
• Coldiretti Puglia

Sustainably managed intensive olive groves of resilient cultivars, emphasizing high-quality production, emerged as the goal for farmers and millers in the southern Italian region where there is a growing consensus that the deadly bacterium cannot be eradicated.

“This visit is significant, as it showcases a rare example of virtuous collaboration between researchers and stakeholders who are actively contributing to our programs,” said Donato Boscia, a leading plant virologist at the Institute for Sustainable Plant Protection of the Italian National Research Council (CNR), to Olive Oil Times.

“At this facility, there is a small olive germplasm conservation field, part of an ongoing genetic improvement program,” he added. “Additionally, there is a greenhouse funded by donations from Merum magazine readers, a climate chamber provided by Unaprol, and a new screen house funded by Save the Olives, the organization supported by Helen Mirren.”

Experts believe the new coordinated initiative offers hope for safeguarding existing olive groves and curtailing the further spread of the pauca subspecies of Xylella fastidiosa to unaffected territories.

Ten years after the emergence of the Xylella fastidiosa epidemic, which is widely believed to have triggered Olive Quick Decline Syndrome and killed millions of trees, Puglia remains the most significant olive oil-producing region in Italy.

“The presence of Xylella in the Apulian territory has reached extreme levels of complexity,” Boscia said. “New findings in central Puglia have identified other Xylella subspecies, such as Xylella multiplex, which is potentially dangerous for viticulture but not a significant issue for olives.”

“However, this complexity necessitates a multifaceted approach to containment and eradication efforts,” he added.

Farming and producer organizations such as Coldiretti, Unaprol and Cai Consorzi Agrari d’Italia have launched a project to assist olive growers in replanting Xylella-resistant varieties.

The goal is to plant around three million new olive trees, a fraction of the 21 million lost to Xylella. This initiative includes providing certified high-quality resistant plants, technical support for land preparation and specialized agronomic and phytopathological consultancy.

“The spread of Xylella has reached a point where eradication is no longer possible. We must learn to coexist with it,” said David Granieri, the president of Unaprol.

Boscia highlighted how extensive Xylella-monitoring operations have given researchers and stakeholders significant knowledge about the bacteria.

“This is the result of a surveillance program conducted by the Puglia region, which is unique worldwide, with over 250,000 analyses per year and 250 monitoring stations dedicated to vector monitoring,” he said, referring to the insect population, such as spittlebugs, responsible for spreading the bacteria.

“This activity is unsustainable in the long term and possibly even in the medium term. It is not exportable because you can’t ask other regions or countries to replicate it with the same amount of resources,” Boscia added, referring to the growing number of different strains of Xylella found throughout the Mediterranean.

“Still, those operations have provided substantial data compared to what was known a decade ago,” he noted.

Controlling vector insect populations goes hand in hand with agricultural practices and procedures that offer hope for the survival of olive trees in affected areas.

“Many native olive trees have been killed, but some have survived. If they are not severely affected, we must try to keep them alive until research enables their recovery,” said Giuseppe Lima, plant pathologist and professor at the University of Molise.

A veteran plant pathology researcher, Lima now coordinates the multidisciplinary research initiative Integroliv, which aims to counteract the effects of Xylella on olive growing in affected areas sustainably.

“To effectively counter such an insidious enemy, specific, single interventions in the region are insufficient,” he said. “Combining different approaches in complex protocols is crucial to maximize their effectiveness.”

“The new collaboration model is open to everyone,” Lima added. “Our approach aims to be a model of investigation and work, as we cannot expect a single project to encompass all possible competencies and solutions.”

“This approach ensures that new knowledge and techniques can be integrated into ongoing efforts to combat Xylella as they emerge,” he continued.

Several nationally-funded research projects, such as the Reach-Xy and Omibreed projects, aim to uncover what is behind Xylella’s genetic resilience, enhance biosecurity infrastructure, control vectors and promote sustainable water use in olive groves.

Other contributions at the event included the 1LiveXylella project, which is developing innovative technologies for Xylella diagnosis, and the SOS project, which focused on reducing the insect vector population.

“This event is a testament to the collaborative spirit of the scientific community and local stakeholders in Puglia,” Lima said. “It brings together expertise from across Europe to tackle a common challenge.”

He added that the new olive trees in Xylella-affected areas, currently represented by non-native varieties, must follow modern, rational agronomic management models to ensure their success.

These models will be based on four olive cultivars demonstrating high resistance to Xylella fastidiosa: Leccino, Lecciana, FS17 and Leccio del Corno.

“These varieties are resistant and tolerant but not immune,” Lima said. “This means we cannot be misled into thinking that, as in the past, we can simply plant olives and rely on good fortune.”

Continuous field management and monitoring will keep new semi-intensive and intensive olive plantations in good health and productivity.

“In these new forms of intensive and semi-intensive olive growing, phytosanitary problems will increase, requiring more fertilizers and phytopharmaceuticals than traditional methods,” Lima warned.

“The protocols [being developed] aim to counteract Xylella and other pathogens to keep the trees of both native and new varieties in good health and productivity,” he added.

According to Lima, the devastation caused by Xylella has harmed the Apulian landscape and identity. However, a new future can emerge from this adversity, characterized by higher-quality olive oil than in the past.

“In the Salento area, olives from those huge, magnificent trees were often traditionally collected from the ground, resulting in high acidity levels in the lampante oil,” Lima said.

“Tomorrow, with modern olive growing and the planting of rational, semi-intensive orchards, things can change,” he added.

In his view, the new groves will be able to consider the socio-economic aspects of modern olive growing, where a workforce can be hard to find and product quality becomes an essential equirement.

“Such modern olive growing will certainly lead to the production of better quality oil,” Lima said. “We are moving towards new forms of olive growing, which could bring more income to olive oil companies while contributing to the restoration of olive growing and the environment in areas affected by Xylella.”

“This is our first time participating in the NYIOOC, and it couldn’t have gone any better,” Fiore said.

The Apulian producer earned a Gold Award for an organic medium-intensity Coratina harvested from family groves in Terlizzi, just north of Bari.

“The award gives us a way to measure the quality of our work,” Fiore said.

Fiore said the accolade came after a challenging season in which the farmer’s skills were tested to maintain a high-quality product.

“The harvest started very well because, after two years of absence, it finally rained,” Fiore said. “And that is important. After that, the impact of climate change started to affect our olive oil production, as we experienced extreme heat.”

“Fortunately, we have some resources, such as irrigation, which helped us through. And then, it started to rain again in September and October,” he added. “In the last two years, olive farming has been more challenging than in the past.”

Fiore and his team apply a series of techniques in the grove to mitigate the impacts of extreme weather.

“Adopting specific agronomic practices can be beneficial,” he said. “For instance, rock dust helps lower ground temperatures, as its white color reflects sunlight, creating a cooler environment.”

“However, even with such techniques on the field, when it doesn’t rain for two months and the temperatures are close to 45 ºC, well, that is a bit of a struggle,” Fiore added.

While many olive oil producers in Puglia focus on several cultivars, Fiore’s family started with Coratina trees decades ago and continues to focus on the endemic variety today.

“We consider ourselves lucky, as our father had grown all Coratina trees,” he said. “Our whole company is 100 percent Coratina. We started a bit by chance because we are managing the lands that our father left us.”

“Many of our approximately 1,200 trees are between 60 and 150 years old,” Fiore added. “The youngest ones are in their 20s.”

Coratina, one of the hundreds of olive tree cultivars grown in Italy, is renowned globally for producing medium to robust extra virgin olive oils extremely rich in polyphenols, contributing to their health benefits.

Since the new generation began working on the farm, Fiore’s family has introduced many innovations to the grove and the mill.

“After a short period of assessment, my son, myself, and my sister, Angela, realized we wanted to add value to what our father had done,” Fiore said. “So I focused directly on agronomics while my sister trained as an extra virgin olive oil taster.”

“We tried to get the best out of the fruits of the trees our father had grown,” he added. “We started by experimenting. At first, we relied on the traditional olive mills easily available in the area, which is rich in olive farming tradition.”

“Then we moved on to more modern techniques and innovative means, which meant leaving behind ancient techniques and delivering an excellent product,” Fiore continued.

The new company’s first step was establishing itself as an organic producer. “Besides applying the organic farming protocols, we stopped the most common traditional practices such as plowing the land,” Fiore said. Now, we focus on spontaneous weeding.”

“In short, we are trying to develop a more sustainable approach to agriculture, an approach that respects the tree,” he added. “Above all, such an approach respects the soil, trying to increase the organic matter contained in the soil year after year.”

Today, most of Fiore’s customers are Italians. “We export very little, as most of the product is consumed within the Italian market,” he said.

“We made some attempts a few years ago to export to the United States, and it went quite well,” Fiore added. “Still, we do not have a distributor there that continuously and structurally takes care of our company’s products.”

While a significant portion of Italy’s and specifically Puglia’s cultural identity is linked with olive oil, Fiore remarked that the prevailing olive oil culture represents a challenge for a high-quality producer today.

“Olive oil has long been seen as the unfortunate cousin of wine,” he said. “While wine has always been super-exalted, as it should be, olive oil has never enjoyed such attention.”

“Maybe that happened because olive oil is considered a condiment, and people have used it just for that purpose for so long,” Fiore added. “Even today, many do not use it for cooking.”

Fiore believes the challenge facing Italian extra virgin olive oil producers is to expand the country’s olive oil culture to all types of cooking, emphasizing the value the product can add to the organoleptic and healthful profile of all kinds of food.

“Customers need to see that when they buy quality extra virgin olive oil, they are not only choosing a good product – not only a simple condiment,” Fiore said. “They are introducing an ingredient that is good and healthy thanks to its unique contents, such as phenols.”

To help build this new cultural framework for appreciation of extra virgin olive oil, Tommaso Fiore often accompanies his customers to his groves to educate them about a broader approach to olive oil consumption.

“When our customers want to see our olive trees, I am so happy to go with them because it is essential for me to show them where the extra virgin olive oil they consume comes from,” he said.

“Additionally, I discuss our fertile, grassy soil, which I take great pride in,” Fiore added. “Currently, our orchards are vibrant with the scent of blooming marigolds.”

The young company was founded in Bari, Puglia, aiming to produce a top-quality monovarietal. Its efforts were again rewarded with a Gold Award at the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the company’s sixth consecutive distinction.

“Many of the trees that we care for were planted by my great-grandfather and grandfather,” said founder Vito Girone. “Indeed, our company was recently created, but my family has been dedicated to olive growing for generations.”

“They used to sell the olives to the local mills, and a small part of the fruit was intended for the production of olive oil for domestic consumption,” he added. “The farm management, which also produces vegetables, has then been passed to our parents, who support me and my brother in our quality-oriented project.”

Until shortly before the company’s creation, the Apulian farmer’s career had taken a different path.

After high school, Girone moved to Turin, in the northern Italian region of Piedmont. There, he graduated and started working in an engineering firm. This lasted for a few years until an inner voice prompted him to move back.

“It was a very good job, but over time, I have realized that I needed a change, especially since my passion for olive oil made itself felt,” he said. “Therefore, I proposed to my brother Luigi, who had graduated in forestry and environmental sciences and already worked in the family business, to launch our own production of extra virgin olive oil.”

“He eagerly accepted, and we began rearranging the company organization,” Girone added. “Since we had just basic knowledge of how to make olive oil, we turned to an external consultant, Alfredo Marasciulo, an expert in quality production. Seeing our strong belief in the project, he agreed to support us, and we started in the 2017/18 crop year.”

Today, the farm covers 25 hectares in Santo Spirito, the northernmost district of the Apulian capital city. There, 5,500 olive trees flourish on flat land less than a kilometer from the Adriatic Sea.

The orchards are located in a hamlet called Ganga di Lupo, from which the company’s name derives. Over half of the trees are centuries old and still retain a traditional planting pattern, with a spacing of at least six by seven meters. Younger trees have been placed in some areas to thicken the orchards.

“In the olive grove, we installed two weather control units that detect air and soil humidity,” Girone said. “We also added leaf sensors that allow us to monitor the growth of the leaves and avoid thermal and water stress in the plants.”

This Agriculture 4.0 system helps to optimize resources and workloads. Girone and his brother plan to install a subsurface irrigation system to save water and energy, replacing the drip system in the orchards.

“Being sustainable is one of our core values, and therefore, we pay strict attention to the efficient use of resources,” Girone said. “Studies say that with drip irrigation, the water lost to evaporation can reach 40 to 50 percent.”

“This does not happen with subsurface irrigation, which lowers water consumption and, consequently, energy consumption since the booster pumps have to pump less water for less time from the well,” he added. “By the next olive harvest, this system should come into operation in some orchards.”

Girone believes that his company and the olive oil sector can no longer afford to continue using unsustainable farming practices.

“To make a quality product, you need water, but climate change has reduced its availability,” he said. “With less rain and declining aquifer levels, farmers must be careful about water consumption and management. Otherwise, there is a risk that this precious resource will no longer be available for agriculture.”

Drought threatened last year’s production. A rainy spring was followed by a prolonged dry spell from June to November, requiring a higher water and energy input.

Nevertheless, the extra efforts paid off, and the olive yield was satisfactory. Coratina is a late-maturing variety, but Girone carries out an early harvest, which usually starts in the first days of November and ends by mid-December.

“To achieve such results, we rely on one of the best mills in the area,” Girone said. “In his facility in Modugno, Donato Conserva, also known as Mimì, provides us with the best technology available today. There is a plan to build our own company mill, perhaps in a couple of years, but we will take one step at a time for now and continue to work with these great professionals.”

Girone attributes the company’s success to the complementary skill sets he, his brother and his parents possess.

“In creating our company, I combined all of our expertise, namely my parents’ lifetime experience in the country, my brother’s agricultural knowledge and my engineering skills, especially in implementing a precision farming model, in addition to the abilities of our collaborators,” he said. Working in a team can be a winning choice even for a small company.”

Girone attributed this business strategy to the award-winning results the company has achieved over the years.

“The awards obtained give us the greatest satisfaction,” he said. “They not only indicate that we are doing a good job but also give prestige to our image. And we succeeded in this despite the difficulties that all farmers like us have encountered in recent years, from the ever-more-frequent extreme weather events to the increased production costs.”

Girone revealed that at the beginning of the sales season, he was worried that rising olive oil prices might scare the consumers. However, he realized that a good part of them truly understood the value of premium products and continued to buy and use them despite the cost increases.

“The fact is that the prices of substandard products have also gone up,” he said. “In substance, the difference between the prices of high-quality and poor-quality products has narrowed a lot, and consumers began to understand that, under these conditions, it is worth buying a high-quality extra virgin olive oil.”

Girone noted that the great communication from olive oil professionals also made people aware of what lies behind quality production and its many benefits.

“Ever more consumers know that a high-quality product makes a world of difference both at the table and in terms of the health benefits,” he said. “We see a growing number of people discovering this quality world.”

“There is a greater awareness than in the past that a quality product is not just a commodity, but the fruit of a work of care, attention and respect for territory and communities,” Girone added. “Indeed, this is probably a key moment for the sector, in which we can make a large number of people aware of the differences between a high-quality product and a low-quality one.”

The Apulian farmer said he could not imagine a life different from the one he is living thanks to extra virgin olive oil. He added that he is committed to improving and exploiting today’s innovations to improve quality and sustainability.

“I believe that in our work, there are fundamental points that we must keep in sight, and one of these is respect for the environment,” Girone said. “Certainly, today’s innovations help us reach the highest levels of quality and be more productive, but I believe that we should not overdo it. We must always treat the environment and the territory that gives us this extraordinary product with great care.”

“Through the reduction of emissions and efficient resource use, we can be a sustainable company in every sense and still aim for the highest quality standards,” he concluded.

It should be stressed that the initial studies concerning the olive decline in Salento attributed the phenomenon to a number of pathogens: the “complex” disease, including also some fungi. But, upon the identification of Xylella fastidiosa subsp. pauca, the bacterium has been retained as the sole causal agent of Olive Quick Decline Syndrome (OQDS).

Consequently, from 2015 onward, every decline symptom identified on olive trees, such as leaf, twig and branch dieback, was attributed to the bacterium, and this assumption was largely conveyed to farmers, agronomists, journalists and politicians.

During the monitoring surveys, the regional inspectors have, consequently, collected samples from olive trees that visibly show some of such symptoms just because they are suspected to be caused by Xylella fastidiosa.

By checking the data collected by the regional phytosanitary inspectors of Puglia, one question arises. If, from 2016 until 2022, the percentage of olive trees that visibly show symptoms of decline tested positive for the occurrence of Xylella fastidiosa is in a range of 22.5 percent to 3.21 percent, which other pathogens caused the symptoms in the remaining 78 to 97 percent of olive trees?

Within this scenario, it should be outlined that, in the pathogenicity tests, Xylella fastidiosa subsp. pauca causes some leaf wilting on the inoculated plants more than one year after the inoculation, whereas fungi belonging to Neofusicoccum spp., isolated in the same areas of Salento affected by the olive disease, are capable of killing the whole plant in two to three weeks (Scortchini et al., 2023).

The wide occurrence of fungi and their aggressiveness could explain the vast majority of symptomatic olive trees sampled and resulted in negative for the bacterium.

It is possible that in the infected areas of Salento, Xylella fastidiosa occurs to a great extent but what is observed is that phytopathogenic fungi are also contemporaneously present in the same tree that hosts Xylella fastidiosa.

A more comprehensive approach to the study concerning the olive decline should be to also consider other phytopathogens involved in the complex disease currently affecting olive trees in Puglia.

It should be added, that, nowadays, many pathological emergencies that affect woody species are caused by a number of phytopathogens that can act between them and in combination also with abiotic predisposing factors.

In any case, in Salento, neither Xylella fastidiosa nor OQDS could have killed “tens of millions” of olive trees, considering that in the province of Lecce, the olive trees are estimated to be “only” 11 million, and many of these are still visibly healthy and productive. Therefore, this narrative is absolutely unfounded.

A second aspect of the rebuttal concerns the low incidence of Xylella fastidiosa in the demarcated areas. We do not deny that the aim of the monitoring surveys is to find infected trees and that a low occurrence of the bacterium has to be expected within the “buffer” areas. We point out the unnecessary sacrifice of asymptomatic centennial and millennial olive trees that surround the infected one within a radius of 50 meters.

According to epidemiological models that revealed “the negligible role of the asymptomatic trees” in further spreading the disease, the additional uprooting would not seem useful.

It should also be added that the “blind” tree uprooting, irrespective of the real occurrence of the bacterium within the olive crown, appears quite obsolete, especially by taking into consideration the great number of very sensitive and reliable detection techniques recently developed for Xylella fastidiosa.

Moreover, many autochthonous olive trees in Salento, which have been infected since 2015, are perfectly healthy and productive today.

Some years ago, it was predicted that in the whole of Salento “will remain just 50 olive trees, a sort of museum of the past”.

Nowadays, such a statement appears quite far from the reality since, thanks to field management strategies that allow the olive groves to vegetate and yield, many farmers are continuing to take care of their olive groves planted with Ogliarola salentina and Cellina di Nardò.

In addition, a vast phenomenon of resilience is currently observed in Salento, also including the areas where the initial outbreak of the disease was reported.

Margherita Ciervo is a researcher and professor at the University of Foggia’s Department of Economy, Management and Territory.

Marco Scortichini is a researcher at the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics’ (CREA) research center for olive, fruit and citrus crops in Rome.

The regional administration said the data clearly show that the pauca subspecies of Xylella fastidiosa is the leading cause of Olive Quick Decline Syndrome (OQDS), which has killed tens of millions of olive trees in the region.

Before the arrival of Xylella fastidiosa, Italy routinely produced more than 500,000 tons of olive oil annually. Now, a harvest beyond 300,000 tons is considered a bountiful crop.

The data span the first monitoring operations in 2013 through 2022, and their publication comes shortly after a study published in the Journal of Phytopathology indicating that Xylella fastidiosa was responsible for only a minority of OQDS cases.

Over the past decade, Xylella fastidiosa pauca has spread across southern Puglia due to vector insects, such as the spittlebug, which carry the bacteria from one olive tree to the next.

The epidemic prompted Italian and European authorities to continuously define and update the boundaries of infected and neighboring areas, enacting numerous containment measures to prevent the spread of the bacteria.

As a result, officials said the most highly monitored parts of Puglia were along the borders of these containment zones, where the percentage of Xylella fastidiosa-infected olive trees and other plants was expected to be minimal.

As Xylella fastidiosa pauca spread north from Puglia’s southernmost peninsula, so did the borders of the infected and buffer areas.

“The goal of the monitoring operations… is not to inventory the infected plants but to anticipate the bacterium and identify and contain or eliminate new outbreaks at the outset to reduce the inoculation pressure on the disease-free zone and slow down the expansion of the infected area as much as possible,” authorities wrote in a note published on a dedicated website to monitoring the spread of Xylella fastidiosa.

“Therefore, monitoring data cannot provide indications on the frequency of the bacterium in the infected zone, as most of its surface is no longer subject to surveillance by the phytosanitary observatory,” they added.

The statement explicitly challenges the conclusions of the Journal of Phytopathology study, which found that only a fraction of the olive trees affected by OQDS were infected by Xylella fastidiosa pauca.

By assuming that OQDS killed millions of olive trees that were not infected with Xylella fastidiosa pauca, the research authors implied that the two were largely unrelated.

According to the regional authorities and leading experts in the field, this conclusion is incorrect.

“The reading of the data by the authors of that research is not reliable,” Donato Boscia, director of the National Research Council’s (CNR) Institute for the Sustainable Protection of Plants, told Olive Oil Times.

“Should we go and test olive trees in the infected area, we would find Xylella fastidiosa pauca in 90 to 100 percent of the cases,” he added.

Boscia, whose work made it possible to identify the presence of Xylella fastidiosa pauca in 2013, said the data analyzed in the study to confirm that Xylella fastidiosa is rarely present in OQDS-hit olive trees just cannot be used to reach such a conclusion.

“It is true that over ten years, about a million plants were analyzed,” Boscia said. “But almost all of them were located where the bacteria was least expected, the so-called buffer zone and the upper end of the infected area. It is normal to find very low percentages of Xylella fastidiosa pauca-infected plants there.”

According to Boscia, the authors of that study also mistakenly interpreted symptoms on monitored olive trees as proof of the presence of OQDS, which their paper compared to the presence of Xylella fastidiosa.

“If you look at the database, at some point, you will see that for each monitored plant, there is a definition of ‘symptoms present’ or ‘symptoms absent,’” he said. “That is just an indication for researchers. Symptoms present is not synonymous with Olive Quick Decline Syndrome, as my colleagues wrote in their study.”

Boscia added that the controversial study did not consider the different methods applied during monitoring operations over the years.

“If we consider data from 2015, we are talking of a period when analyses were also carried out in the areas where the desiccation of the olive trees was already clearly visible,” he said. “That means that in that year, the percentage of plants with ‘symptoms present’ could reach 70 percent.”

The data may have been skewed further by the rapid spread of the disease in the early years, leading authorities to move the buffer and containment zones farther north from areas densely populated with olive trees to those less so.

As a result, many olive trees in this area that died from OQDS were never tested for Xylella fastidiosa. “Those percentages drop to about 20 percent,” Boscia said.

“If one looks at the 2021 data, you can see that percentage dropping further. The reason is that in 2020, E.U. regulations halved the containment area to be monitored. Instead of monitoring the last ten kilometers of the red zone, it was reduced to kilometers,” Boscia added.

“If you look at the whole picture, the conclusions go in the opposite direction of what the study’s authors wrote,” he concluded. “If today, in the areas bordering the infected zone, we have a very low incidence of Xylella fastidiosa, that means that the containment strategy adopted by the European Union is working.”

For more than a decade, the prevailing wisdom had been that the Xylella fastidiosa (Xf) bacterium infected olive trees across the southern Italian region, resulting in the deadly OQDS.

However, research published in the Journal of Phytopathology found that slightly less than 23 percent of trees killed by OQDS from February 2016 to May 2017 were infected by Xf.

Between May 2021 and February 2022, slightly more than three percent of the OQDS-affected olive trees were found to carry Xylella.

If confirmed – and some scientists are skeptical – the findings imply that the strategies currently employed to contain Xf may not effectively address the spread of OQDS.

Researchers said the conclusions are based on data gathered by regional phytosanitary bodies and research institutions from 2013 to 2023.

The data include the areas monitored, the number of trees exhibiting OQDS symptoms, the number of plants examined, the number of trees testing positive for Xylella fastidiosa pauca – a strain of the bacteria that infects olive trees – and the number of plants uprooted within the designated zones in Puglia.

“Everything we wrote comes from reading those numbers,” said Marco Scortichini, lead olive and fruit crop researcher at the Italian Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA), who co-authored the study.

Current methods for detecting Xylella fastidiosa have advanced, including trained dogs and drones.

“These techniques have simplified the detection of Xylella fastidiosa compared to earlier methods,” Scortichini said. “Significant research investment in recent years has led to the development of effective and highly sensitive tools.” 

Local inspectors are responsible for the monitoring tasks, selecting olive trees for sampling by specialized labs to detect Xylella fastidiosa’s presence.

“Expectations might suggest a high prevalence of Xylella fastidiosa in olive trees from infected zones,” Scortichini said. “Yet, we find ourselves at a mere 3.21 percent.”

Since its discovery in Apulian olive trees in 2013, Xylella fastidiosa has been under intense scrutiny by both regional and national authorities.

The bacterium is classified as a List‑A quarantine pathogen, indicating it was previously unidentified in the region and has caused significant damage in other areas, including the Americas.

“Current data validate initial observations, indicating that the syndrome and Xylella fastidiosa overlap only in a minority of instances,” said Margherita Ciervo, a study co-author and researcher at the University of Foggia’s Department of Economy, Management and Territory.

“This also suggests that Xylella fastidiosa is not the primary cause of the trees’ rapid demise,” she added. “Xylella fastidiosa may exacerbate the condition of trees affected by OQDS but is not the direct cause.” 

Given these findings, the researchers advocate reassessing the measures implemented to combat Xylella fastidiosa.

The existing European Union plant health law mandates the demarcation of Xylella-infected zones and the enforcement of strict eradication policies, including removing an infected olive tree and all others within a 50-meter radius.

The study’s authors argue that the eradication measures should be reconsidered in light of their findings. “Earlier studies have shown that asymptomatic olive trees barely contribute to the bacterium’s spread,” they wrote. 

In a 2020 study cited by the researchers, the asymptomatic stage was found to have low to negligible infectivity. Trees with symptoms were instead found to be able to spread Xf to an average of 19 other trees per annum.

According to Scortichini and Ciervo, suspending the 50-meter radius eradication rule “could preserve numerous healthy ancient and monumental olive trees and their significant contribution to the landscape.”

They argue that further investigation should focus on alternative causes of OQDS. “Besides a few studies on Xylella fastidiosa and other pathogens, OQDS has received little attention,” Scortichini said.

He suggested that exploring OQDS’s development could open new research avenues.

“The past decade has seen a shift from the notion of a single pathogen causing fatal disease in trees to a more complex understanding,” Scortichini said. “We’re gradually recognizing that various microbes, influenced by temperature fluctuations and climatic disruptions, can collectively lead to disease.”

He also highlighted the potential impact of climate change on soil conditions, moisture levels and plants’ resilience to drought and heat waves.

“Climate alterations might activate different pathogens that would otherwise be benign or diminish the plants’ capacity to resist them,” Scortichini concluded.

By analyzing samples taken in 136 locations, local experts found the fastidiosa subspecies (Xylella fastidiosa fastidiosa) in six almond trees. It is the first time the strain has been identified in the Italian region.

Given its potential as a pathogen for various plants, local authorities noted that containment protocols, including eradicating the infected trees, analyzing the newly found bacteria and further monitoring, will be conducted.

“The discovery of this new bacterium stems from extensive, precise and careful monitoring carried out by the agriculture department,” Donato Pentassuglia, the regional secretary to agriculture, told local media.

“At this moment, there is a need for a unity of purpose and activity to support the phytosanitary security of the region,” he added. “Now, we must extinguish the outbreak promptly by eradicating the bacterium. There is no need for alarmism, but it is necessary to remain vigilant.”

Pentassuglia said researchers still do not know how aggressive or infectious the new strain is but warned that extra precautions surrounding the pests that transmit the disease, especially those that prey on grapes, must be taken.

The infected plants identified by authorities are located outside Puglia’s red and buffer zones to contain a different strain of Xylella fastidiosa, the pauca subspecies.

Over the past decade, Xylella fastidiosa pauca has caused the death of millions of olive trees across southern Puglia.

According to the European Food Safety Authority, Xylella fastidiosa fastidiosa is not known to infect olive trees naturally. However, the subspecies is well known in the Americas for causing the deadly Pierce’s disease in several crops, such as grapevines.

Since its emergence at the end of the 19th century, Xylella fastidiosa fastidiosa has remained a significant threat to the United States wine industry.

Current models predict a modest global expansion of Pierce’s disease in the next 20 years, primarily due to the international plant trade, which expands the geographic range of the pathogen.

Difficult to detect and often identified only after a long time from the initial infection, Xylella fastidiosa is actively spread by several vector insects.

Puglia is a large wine producer and exporter. Other potential targets of the subspecies fastidiosa include almond and cherry trees, both broadly grown in the region.

Salvatore Infantino, director of the regional phytosanitary observatory, told local media that the U.S. Xylella fastidiosa epidemic and the Apulian outbreak might still follow very different paths.

“The potential aggressiveness [of the newly found strain] depends on many factors, such as the characteristics of the infected areas,” he said.

Gianluca Nardone, director of Puglia’s agricultural department, said the scientific network working with the local authorities on Xylella fastidiosa would determine the origin of the fastidiosa strain, its virulence and the potential damages it could cause to the local territory.

“Xylella fastidiosa fastidiosa is currently present in Europe, according to the EPPO Global Database, in Portugal and the Balearic Islands,” he said.

“We must eradicate the new strain of the bacterium immediately, as it is capable of attacking grapevines,” added Gennaro Sicolo, president of the Italian Confederation of Farmers (CIA). “If this were to happen, it would be a mortal blow to agriculture in Puglia.”

According to Sicolo, a comprehensive approach to the new menace must be developed “through more decisive and systematic support for scientific research, creating and strengthening an international network capable of finally finding effective solutions. Such checks will allow us to address the new danger.”

A call for local, national and European authorities to join forces to contain the impact of the bacteria came from several farming organizations.

In a note, Coldiretti Puglia, a farmers’ union, said a review of the current European regulations about plant imports should be immediately promoted, given the potential severity of outbreaks such as the infection identified in Triggiano.

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Monini, one of Italy’s largest producers, said the country would likely produce more olive oil in the 2023/24 crop year than in the previous. The International Olive Council estimated that Italian production reached 235,000 tons in 2022/23.

“We are expecting lower volumes in most areas of the north and center, but in the south, the season is going well, with overall good conditions in Puglia,” Massimo Ragno, panel leader and purchasing manager at Monini, told Olive Oil Times.

While Ragno estimated that the overall production in Italy could exceed 300,000 tons, the largest producer associations are still working on their estimates.

“Before the actual harvest takes place and the first olive oil yields are confirmed, numbers must be taken cautiously,” Ragno warned.

However, for his 300,000-ton estimate to be realized, the olive oil yield in Puglia would have to exceed 200,000 tons, almost twice last year’s yield.

“Puglia is by far the most significant olive-producing region in Italy; what happens there is destined to affect the whole national output,” Ragno said.

Due to the southern Italian region’s importance to national production, a wave of concern washed over the sector in the last few days when a violent hailstorm hit some areas of southern Italy, including the northern portion of Puglia, where large volumes of olives are grown.

“Rocks of ice that were as large as peaches fell from the sky in a relevant olive growing area, approximately 15 square kilometers,” Ragno said. “Experts in the field, such as insurance technicians, report only partial damages to the olive trees.”

Some farmers hit by the storm told Olive Oil Times of significant but limited damage.

“Extreme weather conditions in the last few days reduced the drupes on the trees between 15 to 20 percent,” Luca Iannone, founder and coordinator of Albori, told Olive Oil Times.

Iannone explained that Albori, located in the northernmost province of Puglia, is still mildly optimistic about the harvest.

“The season was mostly dry, and the trees suffered from some water stress so that emergency irrigation had to be deployed,” he said. “Still, we believe that both quality and quantity will be satisfactory.”

“We also expect a very good season,” Emmanuel Sanarica, the producer behind Ulivè, told Olive Oil Times. “We are seeing quality olives, large and free of damages from pathogens.”

“Still, the season provided us with challenges, as we had intense rainfall during flowering followed by extremely hot weather for the whole summer,” he added. “I know of some areas where those conditions reduced the fruit set and provoked relevant fruit drops, impacting production.”

The Apulian growers and those in other southern regions such as Calabria, Sicily, Basilicata and Campania account for 80 to 90 percent of Italy’s olive oil production.

In Sicily, growers expect olive oil production to be similar to last year, approximately 25,000 tons. The local association Oleum Sicilia noted intense rainfall and strong spring and early summer winds impacted the olive groves.

“We might reach 30,000 tons, but it will still be way lower than the 50,000 tons, which has been the regional average through the years,” said Mario Terrasi, president of the association.

Salvatore Bono, co-owner of Sicily-based Bonolio, told Olive Oil Times that he expects the company to produce 20 percent more olive oil this year than last year.

“The increase and the high quality of our olives will allow us to keep prices steady across the board, something other brands may not be able to replicate,” he said. “As a result, our retail partners and customers have been opting for our premium extra virgin olive oils.”

“The harvest at Bono’s facility will begin the first week of October and is expected to conclude at the end of the month,” Bono added. “In general, for all of our suppliers of olives, the full harvest season typically begins at the same time and extends until the end of November.”

On the peninsula, Campania was also hit by the severe hailstorm that affected Puglia, and several farmers there reported damage. The local branch of the farmer association Coldiretti estimated an overall olive oil output at about 8,000 tons, 40 percent lower than the five-year average.

“Lots of hail fell in Campania just like in Puglia, where crops were devastated,” Claudio De Luca, owner of Case d’Alto, told Olive Oil Times. “As we were not hit, we will start the harvest very soon. We need to see how the transformation yield will go, but we expect to satisfy both quality and volumes.”

In a recent note, the olive oil producers’ association Unaprol remarked on how different conditions unfolded throughout the country during the season.

In the northern and central regions, the harvest is expected to decrease by 20 to 50 percent compared to the previous season.

In the region around Lake Garda and Lake D’Iseo in the north, some farmers report a 50 percent fruit loss compared to the previous season’s bountiful crop.

In those farms, the northernmost areas where the olive tree is cultivated in Italy, marmorated stink bug and olive fruit fly infestations and a few hailstorms significantly reduced the number of the drupes on the olive trees.

Extreme weather events were also cited as the leading cause of an expected drop in olive oil production in Emilia-Romagna and Veneto.

In Liguria, olive growers foresee production decreases ranging from 50 to 70 percent, mostly due to the challenging weather and olive fruit fly infestations.

It is not going much better in central Italy. “In Abruzzo and Umbria, we are seeing a low to medium season unfolding,” Ragno said.

According to the regional producer association Aprol, Umbria’s production is set to shrink by 50 percent compared to the previous campaign, mostly due to very challenging weather and a severe olive fruit fly infestation.

“In the Latium region, we were already expecting the ‘off-year’ for the olive trees,” Ragno said. “Our associates in the region tell us that things might be going a bit better than that in parts of Tuscany.”

In Tuscany, some local growers reported highly challenging situations. Antico Poggiolo, located between Florence and Pistoia in northern Tuscany, told Olive Oil Times of a disappointing season.

“This will not be a good harvest. The fruit set was really low. That, coupled with the olive fruit fly infestation, a very hot season and the lack of rain, contributed to compromise the production,” Silvia Gori, owner at Antico Poggiolo, told Olive Oil Times.

“Climate change in these last few years is seriously challenging agriculture not only from a quality point of view but also for its volumes,” she added. “This will be a season to forget. We estimate a production reduced to zero or at least with such reduced volumes not to be able to fulfill the demand.”

The season is not going much better in central Tuscany. “This is not going to be a rich olive season for Tuscany, as the olives are randomly distributed here and there,” Alberto Morettini, owner of Frantoio di San Giminiano, told Olive Oil Times.

The Consortium for the Protection of the Tuscan Protected Geographical Indication-certified extra virgin olive oil released a note to warn of a 20 to 25 percent decrease in local olive oil that fulfills the criteria of the PGI.

“It was all set to be a generous campaign after the optimal flowering in April,” said Fabrizio Filippi, president of the consortium. “We then had the intense and repeated rainfall in May and June, which charged the soil with water but did not allow good conditions for pollination, so that the passage from flower to fruit in many areas was hindered.”

“After that, we had the scorching hot July and August, which stressed the plants. They ended up dropping their fruits because they could not bring them to ripening,” he added. “Those growers who could irrigate recovered some production; all others faced a way more complicated scenario.”

While Italy appears set to produce more olive oil than in 2022/23, overall production volumes across the Mediterranean basin are likely to fall well below average for the second straight year.

According to Savino Muraglia, award-winning olive oil producer in Puglia and Unaprol vice-president, “bulk olive oil prices have gone up 50 percent, and that will inevitably affect consumers.”

July 2023 data released by Frantoio Italia, a public observatory that tracks olive oil storage in the country, noted that olive oil stocks dropped nearly 25 percent compared to July 2022. Italian olive oil production fell 45 percent to 60,979 tons in the same period.

“The real question is what will happen in six months when the stocks will run out,” Muraglia warned.

Thunderstorms and rain accompanied by hurricane-force winds and hail the size of walnuts left behind desolation in olive groves, vineyards and vegetable gardens.

Olive groves were particularly affected, with the harvest already underway in the southern Italian region. Farmers have called the storms disastrous, with some saying they have lost their entire crop.

Producer associations Italia Olivicola and the Apulian chapter of the Italian Agricultural Confederation (CIA Puglia) have asked local authorities to intervene and help farmers recover by declaring a natural disaster.

The most significant damage came in the rural areas of northern Puglia, especially in the provinces of Capitanata, Barletta-Andria-Trani and the metropolitan area of Bari. The strong wind and hail destroyed thousands of olive fruits, tomato plants and grapevines.

In the province of Foggia, the most significant damage was done in the rural areas of San Severo, Lucera, Sannicandro and Torremaggiore. In Bari, the worst consequences of the sudden wave of bad weather were recorded in Molfetta, Terlizzi, Ruvo, Corat, Giovinazz and Bitonto.

“In a few minutes, months and months of hard work disappeared,” said Tommaso Loiodice, the president of Unaprol, an olive oil producers’ association. “The damage suffered by olive groves, vineyards and all other crops was very great.”

“The flower growers’ greenhouses were completely destroyed,” he added. “Agriculture is vital and essential to the local economy. I hope that institutions of all levels will immediately do their part.”

After visiting the affected areas, Loiodice called the damage “catastrophic,” adding that it was yet another setback for olive growers in the region.

“The olives, in this case, were ripe and ready for harvesting,” he said.” We continue to receive appeals from our desperate olive growers.”

Extreme weather conditions are becoming more frequent, with the cost falling primarily on farmers.

“A year of hard work cannot be ruined by a few minutes of bad weather,” Loiodice said. “Therefore, we join the choir of other [agricultural associations] to request greater insurance and guarantees for compensation so that the efforts of our olive producers are protected and valorized to the greatest extent.”

Coldiretti Puglia, a farmers’ association, and CIA Puglia are already calculating the damage in the olive groves where the trees were left without leaves and fruits, but also in the destroyed greenhouses and landslides caused by this natural disaster.

“Hail in rural areas leaves behind the worst consequences. It destroys the whole year’s work,” Coldiretti said. “When it comes to olive groves, the damage is multi-year because instead of uprooted trees, new ones need to be planted, and even those left without fruits and leaves need more than a year to recover.”

Puglia produces up to 150,000 tons of olive oil in a typical crop year, roughly half of Italian olive oil production. Producers who expected Italy to produce 300,000 to 350,000 tons of olive oil are also disappointed.

Gennaro Sicolo, president of Italia Olivicola, said the decline in production will lead to an increase in wholesale prices of 30 to 40 percent. Olive oil prices at origin are expected to rise to €9, with prices reaching between €10 and €11 per liter on supermarket shelves.

“Prices will not rise only because of the situation in Italy but also because of the lack of production in the entire Mediterranean basin: Spain has been hit by a serious drought, Greece, Tunisia, Morocco and Portugal have also suffered,” Sicolo said.

He added that a ban on olive oil exports from Turkey means Italian bottlers could not turn there either to make up for lost domestic production.