French olive oil production impacted by drought in 2023

The heat and drought of the summer of 2022 have strongly impacted the olive harvest in France and in other producing countries. Olive growers have estimated a drop in their harvest of more than 50% compared to the previous year. The French olive oil production was also strongly affected by these climatic conditions…

A significant drop in olive production throughout the Mediterranean

Although the olive tree is a fruit tree that grows in hot and dry climates, it is still suffering from global warming. Indeed, the weather plays an important role in the production of olives. Temperature differences are not appreciated by this tree which, like all plants, also needs water to bear fruit and thus produce olives. However, the weather did not play in favor of the olive growers this year.

In France, olive trees are grown without irrigation. They need to build up their water reserves with the help of rain. During the last months, the number of rain episodes was too low to guarantee a significant yield of olives during the harvest. The latter has also directly suffered the consequences of global warming, with a decrease in the olive harvest estimated at more than 50% compared to the year 2022.

The problem does not only affect the olive harvest and olive oil production in France. This drop in yield affects all producer countries in the Mediterranean: Greece, Italy, Spain, etc.. In some regions, olive trees did not even bloom and therefore did not produce olives. In the next 15 years, new and more resistant varieties of olive trees from the South of Spain and Portugal will probably be imported to France in order to face the global warming. This will lead to the production of new French olive oils with new tastes and aromas!

French olive oil production in 2023: the consequences of drought and the drop in olive harvest

With disastrous weather conditions for olive growers in 2022/2023, French olive oil production has been cut in half. Drought is the primary cause of this drop in yield, but it is not the only one. Some olive growers anticipate the harvest and harvest earlier to avoid losing more fruit. The olives are thus picked green in order to produce green fruity olive oil. Nevertheless, the production of these olive oils from France requires a larger quantity of olives because green olives contain less juice than a more mature olive.

The small French olive oil producers are thus impacted by low yields that jeopardize their economic model. Indeed, the latter is generally based on small family olive farms, a fairly high production cost and long production times to meet the criteria of excellence of PDO olive oil of France.

Despite these low yields, the quality of French olive oil in 2023 is exceptional! The weather conditions during the harvest days were favorable. They also allowed us to obtain an olive oil of good quality and rich in trace elements!

La Compagnie de l’Huile d’Olive: quality olive oils produced by small French olive growers!

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Organic olive oils
PDO olive oils
AOC olive oils