“Harvest? This year there has been no harvest”, answers Juan Riera Villegas, owner of Can Rich, one of the main olive oil producers on the island. He has the most olive trees at 3,000, from which last year he extracted some 9,000 liters of olive oil. But in 2022 he has only extracted a bare minimum from them: 80 liters of olive oil, enough to fill a car tank. The year-on-year reduction was 99.1%.
This drop has been due “to the flowering, which did not happen”, explains Riera: “The flower, when it is open for pollination [for about two weeks, between April and May] is very sensitive. We believe that there was a heat wave just at that time that caused it not to take.”
“The flower, when it is open for pollination [for about two weeks, between April and May] is very sensitive. We believe that there was a heat wave just at that time that caused it not to take.”
And since it did not take, “there have been no olives. It is not that they are small or have dried up due to the high temperatures and lack of rain. It is that the trees have not produced them,” he says very calmly, despite the catastrophe that this entails. “There will be olive growers who have had a significant reduction this year on Ibiza. In our case, it has been a collection of almost zero. From 9,000 liters harvested last year we have gone to only 80 liters of olive oil this year. It is enough olive oil for our own consumption, nothing more”.
“From 9,000 liters harvested last year we have gone to only 80 liters this year. It is enough olive oil for our own consumption, nothing more”
The harvest of his vines has also decreased, but not in such a drastic way as in the olive trees: “With the vines it has fallen by almost 40%. But what is left in them allows us to defend ourselves. And it has been a good quality, healthy grape. It promises to translate into a good wine”, he assures.
Ibiza has not been the only place where the harvest has been so disastrous: “A technician has just came on Monday and we have been talking about it. It is a general problem occuring here and in the Peninsula. This year there is little to very little. In Jaén, for example, more than half of the farmers will not even make a collection, given its scarcity. It’s not even worth them picking it. And what does he expect to happen in 2023? “God knows, with agriculture you have to pray to several saints at the same time,” Riera comments, laughing.
“It has not affected everyone equally, but, on average, the harvest has been 40% lower than in 2021.
Mariano Tur, president of the Regulatory Council of the Geographical Indication D’Oli d’Ibiza, also speaks of a bad year: “It has not affected everyone equally, but yes, on average, the harvest has been 40% lower than that of 2021,” he calculates. He agrees with Riera that the weather has not been favorable this season: “When the flower had to change to fruit, it did not take well. First it was quite windy. Then there was a lot of fog and humidity. All of that affected the olive tree quite a bit. And then the heat throughout the summer. Those who have not been able to irrigate, even if they have irrigated, have not been able to do much with the dryness of the soil. It will be, he predicts, a year of little bottling: “We had been having some pretty good olive oil seasons. We will have to make do with what we have”.
For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.