Organic Olive Groves
Feb. 21, 2024
Organic olive groves, Italy has the largest percentage
Spain has more, but represents 10% of total hectares
A total of 852,649 hectares of organic olive groves were registered worldwide in 2022 , according to the “World of Organic Agriculture ,” a report published by the Research Institute for Organic Agriculture (FiBL) and the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM) . This report specifies that the global surface area of organic olive groves decreased by 9% in that year (-84,410 hectares), although it is 39.3% higher than ten years ago (+240,381 hectares) .
The news was reported by Mercacei who recalls that Spain has the largest area of organic olive groves ( 262,379 hectares ), followed by Italy ( 243,089 hectares ), Tunisia ( 173,171 hectares ), Greece ( 58,840 hectares ), Turkey ( 56,014 hectares ) and Portugal ( 25,633 hectares ). By continent, Europe has 656,995 hectares of organic olive cultivation, followed by Africa, with 180,199 hectares .
The TOP 15 of organic olive grove producing countries are completed by Argentina (7,713 hectares), France (7,073 hectares), Morocco (5,903 hectares), Palestine (4,656 hectares), Croatia (1,956 hectares), Cyprus (1,586 hectares), Egypt (1,103 hectares ), Chile (1,081 hectares) and the United States (666 hectares).
Specifically, the report highlights that in Italy the percentage of olive groves dedicated to organic production is relatively high (21%); and in Spain it represents 10%; although it is France - obviously taking into account the low overall numbers - that has the highest percentage of area cultivated with organic olive trees, with 40% of the total area.
Available data indicates that 112,233 hectares are in conversion .
