Greek Liquid Gold written by Lisa Radinovsky
Greek olive oil industry changes over the past decade include both setbacks and successes. Ten Greek experts discussed the sector’s major developments. Considering the bad news first in Part 1 of this two-part series, we look at such challenges as climate change and bulk sales of Greek olive oil. Part 2 focuses on more welcome news about the last ten years.
Of course, there are both bright spots among the clouds and reasons for concern amidst progress.
Climate change, other challenges, and the Greek olive oil sector’s response
In the past decade, “climate pressure, unstable prices, rising production costs, labor shortages, and demographic challenges have all made olive growing more difficult” in Greece, according to Vicky Inglezou, Project Manager at NILEAS Agricultural Olive Oil Cooperative. Inglezou believes these difficulties have pushed the sector “to rethink how value is created.”
The result, Inglezou suggests, is a positive effort: “a noticeable shift from quantity towards quality.” Given this goal, “earlier harvesting, better monitoring of soil and weather conditions, certification, traceability, and new digital tools are becoming part of everyday production.” In some cases, as for NILEAS, participation in European projects focused on such things as “climate change and digital agriculture allows new technologies and knowledge to reach producers directly.”
However, a growing concern in the Greek olive oil sector is that “climate volatility has become structural rather than a passing shock,” observes Sofia Prodromou, Head of R&D and Public Relations at Yanni’s Olive Grove. “Multi-year drought, erratic rainfall, and heat waves disrupted flowering cycles” in recent years, as Prodromou explains, “while warmer, drier conditions favored the olive fruit fly, pushing up acidity and lowering quality. Production swung from around 345,000 tons in 2022–23” to much less the next year—192,000 metric tons, according to the International Olive Council. As more producers aim for high quality, extreme and unpredictable weather has made successful adaptation to climate change essential.
Falling production and missed opportunities for Greek olive oil industry changes
Many believe there has been inadequate action to overcome the challenges facing the Greek olive oil sector. Vasileios Zampounis, Agroeconomist, Editor of Axion Editions, olivenews.gr, and Olive & Olive Oil Magazine, and President of 4E, has published many warnings and calls for action. Yet “the past decade, like the ones before it, has continued the same pattern for Greek olive oil,” he told Greek Liquid Gold: “it keeps losing ground in international competition” in terms of quantity. In recent years, he says, Greece has varied between 3rd and 6th place among the world’s top olive oil producers, “and the key indicators for production and exports keep worsening.”
More specifically, Zampounis highlights “the great missed opportunity of the 2022/23 marketing year. Global production had a huge shortfall due to reduced output in Spain, Portugal, and Italy. Greece had a large harvest—350,000 tons of good quality—and instead of capitalizing on it by promoting branded, packaged olive oil in international markets, it shipped it out in bulk, with exports doubling, to cover the shortfall left by Italy and Spain.”
Losing added value from continuing bulk exports of Greek olive oil
Many Greeks criticize the country’s longstanding practice of exporting olive oil in bulk, rather than bottling and branding more of it in Greece. For example, George Oikonomou, President of the Board at FILAIOS / FILEOS, the Olive Oil and Table Olives Society, asserts that during the last ten years “Greek olive oil has maintained its superior quality and remained a top choice for international traders and distributors as a raw material…. However, the sector has failed to organize itself effectively or establish a strong brand comparable to the Italian one.” As Oikonomou notes, bulk exports mean “the value-added benefits are reaped by the importing countries, which then distribute the oil under their own brand names.” Of course, Oikonomou adds, there are exceptions.
Prodromou comments that there has been limited progress in this area over the past ten years. Now, she says, the Association of Greek Industries and Packers of Olive Oil (SEVITEL) estimates that “approximately 700–750 Greek companies bottle and brand their own oil.” Even so, branded Greek olive oil is “still a small slice of total volume,” as “current trade figures show only about 2-5% of Greek olive oil is exported abroad under Greek labels. Estimates put Greece’s annual loss in added value from this at somewhere between 250 and 300 million euros.”
On the other hand, as we will see in the second article in this two-part series, there has also been encouraging news about Greek olive oil industry changes in the past decade. Numerous Greek experts perceive progress with olive oil education, knowledge, quality, health benefits, appreciation, innovation, sustainability, and use in gastronomy and tourism.