Olive harvest kicks off: 30% more oil will be produced in Italy

The olive harvesting campaign has started all over Italy and, after a 2024 ravaged by drought, this year farmers are optimistic: the 2025 campaign will lead to a 30% increase in olive oil production. The forecasts have been elaborated by Unaprol, together with Coldiretti and Foa Italia, although for now these are only projections that will have to be confirmed on the basis of the weather in the coming weeks.

Hands ahead permitting, therefore, Italy should once again be sailing towards 300,000 tonnes of olive oil produced nationwide. The credit for this recovery goes to the olive groves of the South. Apulia and Calabria alone have always accounted for more than 60 per cent of national production and thanks to the rains in July and August, which mitigated the effects of the anomalous heat in May, this year they are sailing towards an increase in yields of between 30 and 40 per cent.

The situation is different in Northern Italy, where olive growers are preparing for a difficult campaign, with a drastic drop in production that sector associations assume to be around 40% due, above all, to bad weather. In Central Italy, on the other hand, the drop in production would be more spotty, so forecasts assume an overall slight decrease, between 10% and 15%, compared to the previous year.

In Italy, olive oil production involves about 400,000 farms and can count on a heritage of 250 million trees and 533 varieties of olives. In our country, 43 PDO and 7 PGI oils are produced, giving us the European leadership in terms of protected olive oil designations. Moreover, starting this year, thanks to a ministerial decree in Italy, the obligation to register olive movements within six hours of purchase has come into force, a tool that should make life more difficult for those who falsify the origin of the product. 'With this decree,' says Unaprol president David Granieri, 'the era of olives with no name and no origin is over, and a new phase based on transparency, responsibility and the valorisation of Italian products is beginning.