For the worst year, worse than 2013 when olive growers laws Chalkidiki saw their labor go to waste, farmers in the region say this year, speaking of a decline in green olive production of more than 90% due to infertility.

“The barrenness of the olive trees is almost complete,” says Athanasios Molassiotis, director of the horticultural laboratory of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUTH), who was in the fields with olive trees in Chalkidiki today, in an interview with APE-MBE. “The situation is really tragic, and there is no exaggeration here,” he notes.

The impacts of climate change are now at a climax in terms of their cost to people in the primary sector, while its effects are increasingly affecting other sectors in the county. “More and more jobs are being lost at the more than 150 green olive processing plants in the prefecture of Chalkidiki, and the loss of income for olive producers – more than 200 million euros – is “costing” the development of the region,” he notes. , in a conversation with APE-MPE, the President of the Chamber of Halkidiki, Yiannis Koufidis, recalled that the national income from the product exceeds 800 million euros.

“The situation has reached a stalemate and now climate change threatens to leave us jobless here in Chalkidiki Prefecture,” Vangelis Misailidis, president of Simantron agricultural cooperative, told APE-MBE.

On the same wave of statements by Elpidophoros Karatanasopoulos, president of the Agios Mamandos agricultural cooperative, where more than 200 growers grow about 6,000 acres of green olives. “This climate change and the current mild winters are deceiving the olive trees in our area, they are not “resting”, and finally, when they need to bear fruit, they have neither the appetite nor the strength to give us something.” , – he emphasizes, speaking of total catastrophe this year.

“With a production cost of 800 euros/ha, from 600 euros/ha until last year, it becomes clear that not only will we not recover our costs, but we, the producers, will also be in debt,” emphasizes Mr. Misailidis.

In the Chalkidiki prefecture area, more than 20,000 growers grow Chalkidiki’s 330,000 hectares of green olives (200,000 table olives and 130,000 olives), and the tree roots are estimated at more than six million. On average, production is estimated at 50 kg/tree, with more than 150 processing plants operating in the prefecture of Chalkidiki, the smallest of which processes 500 tons of olives. In a good year in Halkidiki, where 50-55% of Greece’s table olives come from, the average production is 120,000 tons, although there were years when it even exceeded 150,000 tons.

Collaboration to save the green olives of Halkidiki

The problems of olive growers in the Halkidiki prefecture due to climate change have arisen not so long ago, and given that they are becoming more acute, now the representatives of the Chamber of the Region, as well as the local government, have come to life so that, with the right actions, they can find solutions that guarantee that the harvest will not disappear.

“Following the 2021 harvest, we are working with officials from the Ministry of Agricultural Development and Food to achieve compensation for the olive producers of the Halkidiki Prefecture and differentiation of the Halkidiki olive variety in the IACS declaration made by the growers,” notes Mr. Koufidis, adding that “in cooperation with Professor Molassiotis will prepare a thorough study that will document that the table olives of Halkidiki have been affected by climate change compared to others in the country. The search is already underway for “clones” of the Halkidiki olive variety, which may turn out to need less cold and in this way it will be possible to replace the olive trees and not completely lose the “green gold” of our prefecture.” As Mr. Molassiotis points out, the study could be ready within the next semester.

The Regional Administration of Halkidiki observes with great concern the insufficient flowering of the olive trees grown in the prefecture, both for the production of table olives and for the production of olive oil, and in this context immediately proceeds to conclude a cooperation protocol with the AUTH Department of Agriculture to deal with the phenomenon of olive infertility.

The aim of the partnership between the two parties is to prepare a sustainability study on the influence of climatic and cultural factors on the flowering of olive varieties “Chalkidiki” and “Chondrolia”. In addition, the aim of the study will be, among other things, the future planning of olive cultivation in Halkidiki and the scientific documentation of the phenomenon of its infertility.

Impact of climate change on fruit tree cultivation

“The first concern in our country should be the development of a national strategy for its adaptation to climate change,” notes Mr. Molassiotis, and in this context, he emphasizes the importance of registering the accumulation of cold in various regions of Greece. After all, “this is not an expensive process, since the corresponding infrastructure already exists,” he notes and elaborates: “We need denser weather stations in our country, which, once connected to each other, will help us collect data on a permanent basis. In fact, what is needed is an organization that would allow continuous recording of temperature in various regions of Greece.”

A key issue for Greek growers is that “we are currently experiencing very warm winters which are negatively impacting some crops such as deciduous fruit trees. But this is what we all say among ourselves and nowhere in the country as a whole is this recorded, ”says the AUTS professor.

He also notes that there are varieties that have little cold needs in winter and others that have big ones, “and unfortunately in many cases we don’t have a clear picture of their behaviour,” making it difficult to make the right choice.

There is no room for complacency, he says, and apart from genetic material and the systematic recording of cold hours, another important parameter for adapting to climate change is the cultivation methods used by producers. One of the most important, as he notes, is the use of drugs that disturb the rest of the kidneys in deciduous fruit trees.

As he explains, “if the crop has had enough winter, about 70% of what it needs, then chemical dormancy can help cover the remaining 30% that the tree needs.” Characteristically, he mentions that “in hot Africa, a country, using special preparations, producers have succeeded in producing apples, a product that requires many hours of cold.” It is no coincidence, he notes, that most of the world’s agribusinesses are dedicated to developing approved drugs to relieve puffy eyes.

Source: RES-IPE