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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today, 5 October, together with Coldiretti and Unaprol – Consorzio Olivicolo Italiano, the harvest of the centuries-old olive tree at Villa Adriana began, to produce the Emperor’s oil.<\/p>\n
The oil of Emperor Hadrian returns, with the harvest from the centuries-old Albero Bello tree<\/p>\n
There are 30 million olive trees to be saved in Italy, abandoned due to climate change and the explosion of costs, putting at risk the survival of that heritage of biodiversity and history represented by centuries-old trees. This is the alarm raised by Coldiretti and Unaprol – Consorzio Olivicolo Italiano – on the occasion of the harvest from the centuries-old Albero Bello olive tree at Villa Adriana in Tivoli, which gave rise to the oil of Emperor Hadrian, confirming Italy’s age-old bond with one of the main foods of the Mediterranean Diet.
\nRoman civilisation – point out Coldiretti and Unaprol – was, more than any other, responsible for spreading the olive tree and refining the related cultivation and extraction techniques. Oil became one of the main sources of wealth for the Romans, who knew the product so well that they developed techniques and tools that remained almost unchanged until the 19th century, and were the first to classify oils according to their organoleptic characteristics. Marcus Porcius Cato (234-149 BC) and Marcus Terentius Varro (116-27 BC) wrote the first olive-growing “production specifications”, outlining the theoretical and technical foundations that still today underpin the production of quality olive oils, with an inimitable range of notes, aromas, sensory nuances and degrees of intensity.
\nA culture preserved over the centuries which – Coldiretti and Unaprol point out – has today made Italy the queen of quality recognitions in Europe, with its heritage of 42 olive-growing PDOs and 7 PGIs, equal to 40% of EU certifications, while Spain and Greece trail far behind our country with just 29 recognitions. More than half of national PDO and PGI oil production is exported – explain Coldiretti and Unaprol – with the value of trade up 55% over the last five years, rising from 40 to 62 million euros.
\n20% of Italy’s national heritage of 150 million olive trees is however in a state of abandonment – explain Coldiretti and Unaprol – due to the effects of the war in Ukraine and international tensions, which make investment in olive growing difficult. With costs up by as much as 200% for olive-growing businesses – point out Coldiretti and Unaprol – almost 1 in 10 (9%) is operating at a loss and at risk of closing down, according to Crea data.
\nWeighing particularly heavily are the direct and indirect increases caused by energy costs, ranging from +170% for fertilisers to +129% for diesel used in the fields, while glass costs over 30% more than last year, and there is also an increase of 35% for labels, 45% for cardboard, 60% for tinplate cans, and up to 70% for plastic, according to the Coldiretti and Unaprol analysis. Olive growers and mill operators are also having to deal with the increase in electricity, whose costs have quintupled.
\nFor the olive season that has just begun, initial estimates point to a collapse in national olive production, with Italian families having to say goodbye to almost 1 in 3 bottles of Made in Italy extra virgin oil. National production, down 30%, has been hit by a devastating drought, the worst seen in the last 70 years, which put olive groves under water stress, damaging first flowering and then the buds, especially in areas where it was not possible to intervene with emergency irrigation to quench and refresh the trees. But several businesses decided not to intervene due to the high costs of fuel, electricity, services and soil nutrition support products. Quality has been saved, with Italy able to boast the richest heritage of oil varieties in the world.
\n“In an attempt to reverse the trend, Coldiretti and Unaprol are committed to recovering and maintaining the olive groves of some of the most important Italian archaeological parks, and to trying to save the plain of monumental olive trees from the Xylella bacterium that is destroying olive growing in Puglia,” explains Nicola Di Noia, Coldiretti’s oil manager. “By studying centuries-old trees such as the Albero Bello of Villa Adriana, through a Crea\/Ofa project, it will be possible to identify traits useful for resilience to climate change, for productive behaviour, for versatility in relation to the need for sustainable intensification of olive cultivation, and for improving the health-related characteristics of the products.”
\n“Centuries-old olive trees are custodians not only of history but also, probably, of elements that could help us best face the climate change we are experiencing; for this reason it is absolutely necessary to work to recover and make productive as many of these trees as possible,” says David Granieri, president of Unaprol. “The goal is not only to enrich our body of knowledge, but also to reduce our dependence on imports of foreign oil and thus, with adequate investment, relaunch the production of Made in Italy extra virgin oil.”<\/p>\n
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