The Zadar County Olive Growers Association continues to educate its members and other interested olive growers. After a short summer break, the group organized a workshop on the island of Ugljan in the 400-year-old olive grove of the Marcelić family. “This is a typical extensive olive grove with autochthonous varieties: Oblica and Drobnica predominate,” said 29-year-old Šime Marcelić, a doctor of agronomy and owner of the family grove. The young scientist and lover of olive growing said his ancestors worked for the landowners, saving to eventually buy back the land they cultivated after the second agrarian reform. Ugljan is one of the many Croatian islands in the middle of the Adriatic Sea in Dalmatia, where olives have been cultivated for time immemorial. Maslinik is located on the southern side of the island, 100 meters above the sea. “As you can see, there are stones and poor soil. The conditions are limited, so it is very difficult to work,” Marcelić said. Drought is a perennial problem, which is why the olive grove was abandoned and rebuilt several times. Eventually, Marcelić’s late father, Ignacije, began to restore the trees systematically after the Croatian War of Independence, which ended in 1995. Marcelić continues the work of his father. Saplings grew from the centuries-old root and developed into trees that regularly bear fruit despite the impacts of climate change and other unfavorable conditions. Marcelić attributed the successful revival of the trees to appropriate agrotechnical measures, starting with pruning, fertilization and protection against diseases and pests, which he regularly implements. Unlike most olive growers, Marcelić prunes the trees four times a year. The first is in January when the olive tree is in winter dormancy. Thick branches are removed with a saw. The second pruning is in March. The olive-bearing branches are thinned to ensure optimal yield in the current crop and quality growth for the next crop. The third pruning comes during the summer. Weeds that grow out of the stump are removed. The fourth is during the harvest when the ringed branches are removed. On the island, where the soil is shallow and skeletal, emphasis should be placed on autumn fertilization, Marcelić noted. In contrast to the conditions on the coast, where the soils are deep and have a good capacity for water and where the occurrence of late spring frosts is frequent and expected, spring fertilization should be emphasized. In his olive grove, Marcelić applies fertilizer between the first summer and the next heavy rain, mostly at the beginning of September. He uses mainly organic pelleted fertilizers in combination with mineral fertilizers that have more phosphorus and potassium with the addition of microelements. Marcelić also warned about the danger of infection with peacock’s eye, which is the most urgent part of work in olive groves, both on the islands and the coast. During the autumn, after the first rains, temperatures are relatively high. Wet leaves provide the optimal condition for the development of fungal diseases, especially primary infections with peacock eye. For this reason, Marcelić recommends that protection is carried out before harvesting, especially on susceptible varieties such as Oblica. Applying protection after the harvest, which many olive growers do, is too late because fungal diseases have already infected the leaf. In the spring, the leaf will fall, and nothing more can be done. The olive tree will not have enough leaf surface to develop the fruit. Instead, the tree expends its energy renewing the leaf mass resulting in less fruition. Marcelić also explained how he overcame the drought by restoring old olive trees. “The restoration of centuries-old trees is actually the first line of coexistence with the drought,” he said. “[It is] the measure by which we reduce the damage of the negative effects of the drought.” A young tree with an extensive root system better tolerates the lack of moistur...

Surface temperatures in Africa rose more than the global average in 2021, making last year one of the hottest on record for the continent. According to the State of the Climate in Africa 2021 report, published by the World Meteorological Organization, rising temperatures contributed to heatwaves, wildfires, extensive floods and lakes evaporating, all posing severe consequences for people, biodiversity and agriculture in several countries. The impact of climate change on agriculture is formidable in Africa. Since 1961, steadily rising temperatures have reduced the development of African agricultural productivity by 34 percent. According to the report, the trend is likely to continue with severe consequences for food security. In a scenario where global temperatures increase 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, experts believe that West Africa would lose at least 9 percent of its maize yield, with wheat yields destined to decline between 20 to 60 percent in southern and northern Africa. Researchers also noted that North Africa, the continent’s largest olive-growing region, is experiencing a more significant and rapid temperature rise. Temperatures in North Africa grew twice as quickly from 1991 to 2001 as they did from 1961 to 1990, and almost twice the global rate for the same period. In Tunisia, traditionally the largest olive-producing country outside of Europe, the summer of 2021 was the hottest since 1950, with temperatures exceeding the 1981 to 2010 average by 2.65 °C. Two heatwaves enveloped the country, with peaks of 49.9 °C in Tozeur and 50.3 ºC in Kairouan, one of Tunisia’s most relevant olive-growing regions. In northern Africa, precipitation patterns were also highly anomalous in 2021. Above-average precipitation reported in northeastern Egypt was accompanied by below-average rainfall in Morocco, Tunisia and northwestern Libya. Stoked on by the dry weather, wildfires raged across Algeria and Tunisia, where thousands of hectares of fruit trees were lost, and thousands of farm animals died. The WMO confirmed that the frequency of extreme heat events on the continent is increasing, with the hottest days on records all happening in the past few years. Food security has been jeopardized in many areas. People in several regions have been forced to leave their homes due to extreme weather events, such as the floods in South Sudan, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Besides North Africa, severe droughts have been reported in the Sahel, East Africa and Madagascar. Additionally, rising sea levels in 2021 impacted low-lying coastal cities and increased the salinity of coastal farming zones, accelerating erosion and worsening coastal flooding. According to the report, 108 to 116 million people will be at risk of rising sea levels by 2030. Scientists and climate experts that authored the report emphasized how the constant increase in water consumption will add pressure to water demand and water resources that are already scarce. The situation is exacerbated by droughts and heat waves, which are predicted to become longer and more severe over time. “Disruptions in water availability will impede access to safe water. In addition, limited water availability and water scarcity are expected to trigger conflicts among people who are already contending with economic challenges,” the report reads. WMO data show that 418 million people do not have access to a “basic level of drinking water,” with 779 million not having access to “basic sanitation services.” According to the report, mountain glaciers on the continent continue to recede. In a few cases, such as Mount Kilimanjaro, 85 percent of the ice cover has been lost in the last century. Several significant glaciers are set to disappear in a matter of years. River discharge is progressively reducing in most countries. The new report, compiled in association with the African Union Commission and several international agencies, is the third of a series and focuses on wate...

Part of our con­tin­u­ing spe­cial cov­er­age of the 2022 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition. Producers from cen­tral Italy were undis­puted pro­tag­o­nists at the 2022 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition. Once again, they earned many awards as a result of their care for the land and focus on the sus­tain­able use of resources. Olive grow­ers with a long story of suc­cesses were joined by first-time win­ners, all of whom are aware of the cru­cial role farm­ers play as pro­tec­tors of the envi­ron­ment. “We are thrilled to have won this pres­ti­gious award,” said Laurence Deprez Zenezini, of Cultura Viva, after receiv­ing a Gold Award for her Le Clarisse blend. “Our ref­er­ence mar­ket is the United States, and this pushed us to par­tic­i­pate in the NYIOOC, which is an impor­tant show­case for the inter­na­tional mar­ket,” she added. After liv­ing in many coun­tries around the world, she set­tled in Umbria with her fam­ily. “Last year, in June, we attended a course for olive oil tasters, and in October, we car­ried out our very first har­vest,” she said. Located in Collazzone, in the province of Perugia, her prop­erty includes a small ham­let with the for­mer monastery of the Poor Clares, from which the name of the oil comes and a farm­house sur­rounded by 40 olive trees. Another 600 plants of Moraiolo, Leccino and Frantoio, are spread over the hill below. “The first project was to recover this place,” Deprez Zenezini said. “Then we started prun­ing the trees doing con­sis­tent reform work. Last year, also due to weather issues, we har­vested 25 per­cent of the capac­ity of the grove.” They recently added a new plot with 120 trees of the Don Carlo vari­ety, planted in a tra­di­tional pat­tern to pre­serve the orig­i­nal land­scape shape. Protection of the land and its bio­di­ver­sity under­lies the vision of Cultura Viva, which means liv­ing cul­ture. “We want to make cul­ture,” Deprez Zenezini said. “With the olive leaves from har­vest and prun­ing, we also pro­duce a unique kom­bucha. In doing this, my hus­band Stefano and I are sup­ported by our two chil­dren, who help us with the com­mu­ni­ca­tion of the prod­ucts.” “Our daugh­ter cre­ated the pack­ag­ing of Le Clarisse through which we want to express purity, har­mony, and sim­plic­ity,” she added. Following the prin­ci­ples of regen­er­a­tive agri­cul­ture, the fam­ily com­pany has adopted a cir­cu­lar econ­omy approach, where noth­ing goes to waste and every­thing is reused, includ­ing rain­wa­ter. “Drought is now the main prob­lem,” Deprez Zenezini said. “Considering the ris­ing pro­duc­tion costs, we are aware that we have started at a com­plex time. Yet we are very con­fi­dent in the future and, also build­ing on these suc­cesses, we are look­ing for­ward to the upcom­ing har­vest.” Along with first-time recip­i­ents, long­time NYIOOC win­ners from cen­tral Italy cel­e­brated suc­cess at the world’s largest olive oil qual­ity com­pe­ti­tion. Among these were the pro­duc­ers from Domenica Fiore, also in Umbria, who earned three Gold Awards for their Olio Novello, Novello di Notte and Olio Reserva brands. “Once again, this year, we have man­aged to cre­ate high-pro­file prod­ucts,” Cesare Bianchini told Olive Oil Times. “We are very happy with this result that makes us very proud.” A mas­ter miller and blender, Bianchini fol­lows the whole pro­duc­tion process of the multi-awarded blends. “We col­lect the dif­fer­ent vari­eties – Leccino, Frantoio, Moraiolo, and Canino – sep­a­rately,” he said. “We care­fully com­bine them later to cre­ate bal­anced and com­plex sen­sory pro­files that we could not obtain by ran­domly mix­ing the vari­eties.” The olive trees thrive opti­mally at 400 meters above sea level in rich, sandy soil – mil­lions of years ago, prob­a­bly in the Plio-Pleistocene era, the land that hosts these orchards was a seabed, and it is still pos­si­ble to find ancient shells in the ground. After har­vest­ing, the fruits are crushed in the com­pany mill, w...

In 2001, Alfonso Swett, the Chilean businessman and entrepreneur, was driving through sprawling olive farms in Spain when he had an epiphany. “He started to realize that in Chile, the conditions are similar, specifically in the middle of the country,” Claudio Lovazzano, the marketing manager of Olivos del Sur, told Olive Oil Times. At the time, olive growing in the country was parochial in the very literal sense of the word. While olive trees had been brought to Chile by the missionaries who followed the conquistadores in the 1500s, their cultivation had not expanded far beyond the devoutly Catholic country’s monasteries and parishes. However, the turn of the 21st century was also a moment when wineries were expanding into the fertile hills of the country’s central valley. Vintners saw the potential of the terroir and Mediterranean climate. Swett – who has led five companies, advised the government on foreign policy and teaches at the prestigious Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile – sensed the moment was ripe to begin planting olive trees to produce olive oil. By 2004, he planted his first olive trees in high density. In 2007, Olivos del Sur harvested for the first time. “The idea was to be very focussed on high quality but always thinking about how to do so in volume,” Lovazzano said. “At that time, he was a pioneer of planting trees in high volume.” Swett, who made millions finding ways for companies to operate more efficiently, believed the traditional harvesting of Spain was an inefficient use of capital and human resources and a detriment to quality. To make sure he was getting his mechanically-harvested olives transformed into oil as quickly as possible, he built a mill in the center of his first grove. “One of our main secrets for producing high-quality olive oil is we can harvest and get the olives to the mill very quickly, in just two hours,” Lovazzano said. “It was a state-of-the-art concept at the time.” When Swett began planting olive trees, Chile had about 6,000 hectares of commercial olive groves. Now, there are 28,000 hectares of olive groves planted in Chile, of which 2,500 belong to Olivos del Sur. With an annual production of roughly 4 million liters, Swett’s company is the largest olive oil producer in Chile. Swett, who was educated in the United States and sits on the board of a Peruvian company, has always had an international mindset. He saw the potential for extra virgin olive oil in the Brazilian and North American markets. Now, 50 percent of Olivo del Sur’s annual production is exported. Of that, Lovazzano said 50 percent is destined for Brazil, where the brand has proven to be immensely popular. Olivos del Sur also exports to Canada, Mexico and the United States. The lucrative East Asian market is also in its sights, with some sales already taking place in Japan and planning underway to expand further. As a result of its expansion into the North American market, Olivos del Sur decided to enter the NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition, the world’s largest olive oil quality competition. Lovazzano said the awards, along with its competitive prices, help the company convince distributors to carry their brand. “When you go to pitch to a distributor, and you say, here’s my brand, and these are the awards that we are winning, they say fantastic,” he said. Since first entering its O-Live & Co brand in 2020, Olivos del Sur has won a Gold and two Silver Awards at the NYIOOC. Lovazzano contends that Chile – with an average annual production of 20,000 tons – is an ideal place to grow olive trees. “We don’t have many pests like the olive fruit fly. We don’t have Xylella fastidiosa,” he said. Despite the country’s ongoing drought, Lovazzano believes that olive growers can continue to thrive, but only if they adapt modern agricultural techniques. “We started using precision agriculture in 2018 when we realized that the drought was becoming a huge problem,” he said. “We needed to find an alternative way to man...

The 2022 olive harvest in Italy will begin in the next few weeks but will be shrouded by uncertainty, with producers facing reduced yields and rising production costs. Rising costs for raw materials, fertilizer, glass, paper and logistics are putting the sector’s resilience to the test, while skyrocketing energy and electricity prices are affecting the whole production chain. On top of this, the first estimates for the next season show a 20 to 30 percent drop in overall olive oil yield in the country. Given the turmoil in the European energy market caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the electricity prices have exceeded €400 per megawatt hour in all significant markets. Italy is facing prices of €450 per megawatt hour. By comparison, the average price of the previous decades was between €20 to €30 per megawatt hour. While growers have to face the consequences of the worst drought in decades, millers will also have to cope with these unheard-of energy prices, which are expected to reach new record highs in the coming weeks when the harvest season starts, and electricity consumption reaches its maximum. “At the moment, we are seeing costs rising between 200 and 250 percent,” Elia Pellegrino, president of the Italian olive oil millers association (AIFO), told Olive Oil Times. “Of course, that can have significant consequences for the sector, even more considering the estimates of the low yield for very important regions such as Puglia.” Puglia, located in southeastern Italy, is by far the most relevant olive-producing region in the country, accounting for 40 to 50 percent of the overall national production. As a result of rising production costs, some millers expect extra virgin olive oil prices to increase significantly for consumers. “I do not think we can avoid raising the final price of the product,” Silvano Pasquinoni, a large miller in the northern Emilia-Romagna region, told Il Resto del Carlino. “There is not only the costs of energy to be considered but also the reduced production in many regions.” “And all the other expenses to consider, such as packaging or glass,” he added. “Everything now costs twice what it used to cost.” In response to rising costs, producer associations, including Assitol and Italia Olivicola, have asked the government to enact extraordinary measures to limit energy costs. “Our industry, which has always been characterized by low-profit margins, has been working for a long time to lower fixed costs,” said Anna Cane, president of the olive oil group of Assitol. “But now companies cannot stop this wave of rising costs. It is almost impossible to leave the final price of the product on the market exempt from such increases in energy and raw materials.” Assitol added that authorities would need to work closely with large food retailers – who are responsible for 70 percent of olive oil sales in Italy – to keep olive oil prices within reach of regular consumers. The high variability of extra virgin olive oil prices on the shelf has significantly impacted the whole sector. The largest retailers saw their overall sales boosted by consumers’ interest in their low-priced olive oil offers. Such offers traditionally target extra virgin olive oil because of the special place it holds in the shopping cart of the Italian family. Therefore, higher extra virgin olive oil prices might not translate into larger payments for producers and millers. “Should extra virgin olive oil be sold at €6.00 or €6.50 per liter, that could probably help producers a bit,” Pellegrino said. “Still, experience tells us that when bulk olive oil prices rise significantly, most of that product risks not being sold. A higher price could greatly affect sales.” He added that the rising cost of living in Italy likely meant consumers could not pay higher prices for olive oil. As a result of the harvest outlook and Italy’s current macroeconomic situation, millers are likely to bear most of the financial burden. “They will have to buy ...

For the first time in nearly a decade, Spanish olive oil production could fall below one million tons. According to the farming cooperatives of Andalusia, the country’s most significant olive oil-producing region, farmers and producers in Spain may yield just 918,000 tons of olive oil in the 2022/23 crop year. Last year, Spain produced about 1.3 million tons, according to the International Olive Council, slightly below the rolling five-year average of 1.37 million tons. Farmers, producers and officials have blamed prolonged summer heatwaves and the unprecedented drought for the significant production slump. In May, record high temperatures during the critical olive flowering period were the first significant setback for producers, reducing yields as blossoms desiccated on the trees. Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias, Spain’s leading agricultural cooperative, said skyrocketing energy costs – which have risen 443 percent in the last two years – have been another blow for farmers and millers. These costs are expected to hit new highs during the harvest season when the entire industry reaches its peak energy consumption. The cooperative added that such costs would represent an even heavier burden for the industry as the numbers of olives set to be harvested continue to fall, impacting growers’ incomes. They also warned that the forecast of 918,000 tons strictly depends on the weather in the next few weeks. The absence of enough rainfall to replenish irrigation infrastructure could cause production to fall further. An official estimate on the coming harvest in Andalusia is expected soon from the regional government. Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias estimated that the autonomous community would produce a maximum of 700,000 tons of olive oil. Last year, Andalusia produced 1.15 million tons of olive oil. According to Cristóbal Gallego Martínez, president of the Olive Oil Sectoral Council of Agro-food Cooperatives of Andalusia, “this drought is subtracting olive production each day that passes.” Gallego confirmed that rainfed groves are practically at “zero, with no load of olives.” He added that irrigated groves, which constitute more than 33 percent of all Spanish groves, will not yield large productions as water availability for irrigation is currently restricted. “Most of the olive trees have little water, the olive fruits are wrinkled, and some are even starting to blacken when their natural color now would be green, as this is the time when olive undergoes lipogenesis, the process during which the olive begins to transform sugars into oil,” he said. “We are approaching the beginning of autumn, and there is little prospect of short-term rain, which makes us very pessimistic,” he continued, adding that the new campaign could become “the carbon copy of the 2014/2015 season,” the second worst on record. However, some relief may be on the horizon. José Miguel Vinas, a meteorologist at Meteored, said rain might come in several regions of the country as Hurricane Danielle approaches Europe’s Atlantic coast. Despite the potential for rain, officials expect current levels of production losses to lead to €1.7 billion of losses for the sector. “Considering that 67 percent of the production sector is represented by the Andalusian agri-food cooperatives, the losses in these social economy companies would amount to €1.14 billion,” the cooperative said. Along with the anticipated drop in table olive production, Cooperativas Agro-alimentarias said special measures are needed to support farmers. They called on authorities to cut taxes on fuel, electricity, fertilizers and phytosanitary projects. The cooperative also emphasized the increasingly urgent need to upgrade irrigation technology and develop a water strategy.

New research indicates that the world is on the brink of five “disastrous” climate tipping points as global temperatures have exceeded the pre-industrial average by 1.1 ºC. “Climate tipping points are conditions beyond which changes in a part of the climate system become self-perpetuating,” the researchers wrote in the study published in Science, which assessed more than 200 previous studies. “These changes may lead to abrupt, irreversible and dangerous impacts with serious implications for humanity,” they added. Among the five tipping points passed as global temperatures reached the 1.1 ºC mark are ice sheet collapses in Greenland and West Antarctica, changes in a significant north Atlantic ocean current, biodiversity loss in tropical coral reefs and abrupt permafrost loss. The researchers said these events would have profound impacts on the climate. Loss of ice mass at the poles is expected to result in significant sea level rise, while changes to the Labrador current will profoundly alter Europe’s climate. The thawing of permafrost is also expected to release tons of carbon into the atmosphere. As temperatures reach the 1.5 ºC threshold, the minimum rise now expected, researchers indicated that four of those five tipping points would move from “possible” to “likely,” while five new tipping points would become possible. These include mountain glacier loss and the migration of forests farther north. “This provides really strong scientific support for rapid cutting of emissions in line with the 1.5 °C goal,” David Armstrong McKay, a climate researcher at the University of Exeter and lead author of the study, told New Scientist. “But the closer you get to 2°C, the more likely some of these tipping points get,” he added. “Where we’re heading at the moment is something like 2.6°C – that’s definitely going to hit lots of tipping points.” At the 2 ºC threshold, the researchers warned that a further six tipping points would also become more likely. They concluded that the study provided more evidence for urgent action to mitigate climate change, adding that further studies would need to be done to delve more deeply into each tipping point. “The world is heading towards 2 ºC to 3 ºC of global warming,” Johan Rockström, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and a co-author of the study, told The Guardian. “This sets Earth on course to cross multiple dangerous tipping points that will be disastrous for people across the world,” he concluded. “To maintain liveable conditions on Earth and enable stable societies, we must do everything possible to prevent crossing tipping points.”

The average temperature this summer in Europe was the highest on record, according to data from Copernicus, Europe’s climate change service. Average air temperatures from June to August exceeded the previous record set in 2021 by 0.4 ºC, with extreme heatwaves hitting the east of the continent in August and record-breaking temperatures scorching the southwest earlier in the summer. “An intense series of heatwaves across Europe paired with unusually dry conditions have led to a summer of extremes, with records in terms of temperature, drought and fire activity in many parts of Europe, affecting society and nature in various ways,” Freja Vamborg, a senior scientist at Copernicus, told the BBC. “The data shows that we’ve not only had record August temperatures for Europe but also for summer, with the previous summer record only being one year old,” she added. This summer saw record-breaking temperatures across many European countries, including parts of France and Portugal. Across the continent, the heat was also accompanied by the worst drought of the past 500 years. While it is very difficult to determine whether climate change directly caused any individual extreme weather event, World Weather Attribution (WWA) previously concluded that record-high temperatures of 40 ºC in the United Kingdom would have been “extremely unlikely” without human-caused climate change. The initiative, which involves researchers worldwide, used observational and model analysis to determine that human-caused climate change made the event “at least 10 times more likely.” They added that in a world with 1.2 ºC cooler average air temperatures, the United Kingdom would have likely been 2 ºC less hot. At a global level, August was the joint-third-hottest on record, with temperatures exceeding the 1991 to 2020 average for the month by 0.3 ºC. Outside of Europe, the olive-growing regions of China experienced drought and heatwaves throughout the summer months. Parts of Sichuan, in the southwest, experienced 70 consecutive days of temperatures exceeding 40 ºC and the lowest water levels on record, resulting in significant crop losses and power shortages. According to data from the United States Department of Agriculture, China produces about 8,000 tons of olive oil per annum, mainly in Sichuan. California, which accounts for virtually all olive oil produced in the United States, also witnessed one of its warmest summers. Earlier this week, parts of the Golden State experienced record-high temperatures. Sacramento, the state capital, recorded a record high exceeding 46 ºC. San Jose did, too, with the mercury nearly touching 43 ºC. Other cities recorded daily record highs, including San Francisco and Salinas. California producers expect an exceptionally low harvest of 1.8 million tons in the coming crop year, partially fueled by the state’s unrelenting drought.

Spanish table olive producers are anticipating the weakest harvest in a century, according to Asaja Sevilla. The Seville-based chapter of the Union of Young Farmers and Ranchers said about 406,000 tons of table olives would be harvested, a decrease of 38 percent compared to the previous year’s record-high harvest of 659,000 tons. The historic drought and searing heatwaves in Spain, which had already delayed the harvest due to a lack of ripening, caused many trees to desiccate or drop their olives to conserve water as scarcities continued. The association also warned that the damage to some trees might be more long-term. Asaja Sevilla added that if it were not for last year’s significant ending stocks of table olives, 429,000 tons, some canners and exporters might not have had any left to sell domestically after meeting their export obligations. Away from Spain, Asaja Sevilla said they expect production to increase by 35 percent to reach 223,000 tons in Greece, despite a recent hail storm damaging the trees in the northern Chalkidiki peninsula. The association also expects table olive production to rise 62 percent in Egypt, reaching 808,000 tons. The rest of the world is expected to experience significant production decreases, with substantial declines in the United States (-59 percent), Portugal (-19 percent), Italy (-17 percent), Morocco (-17 percent) and Argentina (-4 percent). Overall, global table olive production is expected to reach 1.7 million tons, a 3 percent increase from last year but 5 percent below the rolling five-year average. However, a poor harvest is not necessarily bad news for everyone in the sector. Asaja Sevilla expects table olive prices to rise due to the production decline and an increase in input costs. The expected price increase is fueled partially by an anticipated rise in imports from the United States due to its poor harvest. Asaja Sevilla added the other reason for rising prices results from the 120-percent increase in the cost of diesel, a 180-percent increase in the cost of energy and a 100-percent increase in the cost of fertilizer.

The impact of ultra-processed food consumption on human health may be more significant than the food’s nutritional qualities. According to new research in Italy, food ratings currently used for packaged food labels may miss the point by mainly focusing on the nutritional profile of processed foods. The research paper published by the Journal of the British Medical Association (BMJ) found that significant ultra-processed food consumption leads to higher mortality risks by several causes. However, the nutritional profile of such food does not impact these risks. The same edition of the BMJ also featured American research demonstrating a link between high consumption of ultra-processed food and colorectal cancer, with significant differences in the impact between men and women. Investigating the results of their 15-year study on more than 20,000 individuals, the Italian researchers tested the effects of consuming ultra-processed food, classified as such by NOVA ratings, while also considering their nutritional classification from the Food Standards Agency Nutrient Profiling System (F-S-A-M-N-P-S). NOVA was developed by researchers at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. According to a 2019 United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization paper, NOVA definitions of ultra-processed foods are the most applied in scientific literature. F-S-A-M-N-P-S, on the other hand, is currently used to rate foods by relevant front-of-pack-labeling systems, such as the French-born Nutri-Score. “We felt the need to see if Nutri-Score could really help improve public health, as the European Commission is currently considering its introduction as an E.U.-wide mandatory food rating system,” Marialaura Bonaccio, senior epidemiologist at the Italian Mediterranean Neurologic Institute and co-author of the study, told Olive Oil Times. “In the last 10 years, research has gone beyond focusing on the sole nutritional composition of foods,” she added. “Thanks to the work of Carlos Monteiro and others, the research has begun focusing on how food is transformed and manipulated.” According to the researchers, both FSAm-NPS and NOVA reach their food rating goals when individually applied to foods. Results change, though, when the two indexes are jointly considered. “Both systems correctly predict health risks,” Bonaccio said. “If you constantly choose foods rated as inadequate by Nutri-Score, you expose yourself to greater risks of incurring relevant diseases. The same goes for NOVA, which is also associated with coronary heart disease risk.” “When they are jointly considered, though, the risks associated with Nutri-Score are reduced by the NOVA system, and that tells us we are not seeing the impact of a nutrient-poor diet but the impact of ultra-processed foods,” she added. “More than 80 percent of foods Nutri-Score rates as poor quality foods are ultra-processed.” In the study, the authors wrote that “a significant proportion of the higher mortality risk associated with an elevated intake of nutrient-poor foods was explained by a high degree of food processing. In contrast, the relation between a high ultra-processed food intake and mortality was not explained by the poor quality of these foods.” The NOVA system typically defines ultra-processed food as food having five or more ingredients not usually found in a household. Those substances, such as additives and enhancers, are part of ultra-processing methods as they derive from the further processing of food components. “The ultra-process definition is crucial because it is not univocal. It is mostly common sense,” Bonaccio said. “If I bake a pie at home, I might use many simple ingredients such as flour, eggs or milk. And the outcome might depend on the correct balance among those ingredients.” “But when, on top of that, I use food additives, then the pie starts to become an ultra-processed food,” she added. “That is why the definition is not totally unambiguous. For example, if in a supermarket you see...