Bad news for gourmets: Italian olive oil production suffers from extreme heat and drought

euronews (in English)

Italy's Puglia region is facing high levels of heat and drought, causing water scarcity that is having negative consequences for the region's production of olive oil.

Transcript

00:00Extreme heat and drought.

00:03This year in Italy, the product of olive oil,

00:06one of the fundamental ingredients of the Mediterranean diet,

00:09will suffer heavy consequences from water scarcity.

00:12The region of Apulia in the south of Italy

00:15is responsible for around 50% of the national olive oil production,

00:19but the drought has been felt harshly here.

00:22Pietro Leone manages an agricultural company in the province of Foggia

00:27with around 100 hectares planted with olive trees.

00:30This year, low rainfall has seriously impacted olive production

00:34and next November's harvest promises to be poorer than the previous year.

00:39This year's production is poor, much less than last year's.

00:43We've had the stress that we've been carrying on for a couple of years

00:48and then we've had two days of bad weather during the flowering

00:53and many varieties didn't bear fruit.

00:56This year we have 50% to 80% less production.

01:02The Cappaccio Dam is the closest to the city of Foggia

01:05and supplies water to the entire province

01:07for industry, irrigation and drinking purposes.

01:10It is fed by a stream that transports rainwater into the reservoir.

01:15Today, this dam is practically empty

01:17and contains just 2.5 million cubic metres of water

01:21compared to the usual 17 million cubic metres.

01:24What little there is, comes from last winter.

01:27This year, the dam did not fill.

01:30The other three reservoirs in the province of Foggia are only 50% full.

01:36Instead of having 300 million cubic metres available in the four reservoirs,

01:41we only had half, 150 million cubic metres.

01:44So we did half a season in Rigua, in the Comprensorio in Rigua

01:49and then we had to stop to preserve nine months of drinking water.

01:55Numbers and percentages are worrying,

01:58but become shocking when translated into images.

02:02Green meadows and animals have replaced water.

02:06Here we can see in concrete what the term drought means.

02:11The low water levels of this artificial reservoir

02:14may be an advantage for grazing cows,

02:16but are very dangerous for olive trees.

02:18Although these plants need less water than other crops,

02:21temperatures above 40 degrees for 50 consecutive days

02:24put the production of olives,

02:26and therefore the precious olive oil, at great risk.

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