Greeks Harvest City Olive Trees for Free Oil Amid Rising Prices
As global prices of olive oil continue to soar to exceptionally high levels, communities in Greece are improvising, using city olive trees to support the most vulnerable in meeting their families’ olive oil needs.
Greek communities have found a way to combat food insecurity while reducing waste at a time of a global cost of living crisis. People are gathering olives from urban trees and therefore produce free olive oil for those most in need.
A decade ago at the height of the then-Greek financial crisis, Glyfada, a middle-class seaside suburb of Athens, pioneered this community-focused effort by lining its streets with hundreds of olive trees.
The program has since spread to other Athens suburbs, the western port city of Patras, and, most recently, Thessaloniki, Greece’s second-largest city.
Glyfada’s annual harvest from these urban olive trees yields around one tonne of olives, which are processed into oil and supplied free of charge to those in need within the boundaries of the municipality.
Thessaloniki’s program, on the other hand, plans to harvest 800-1,000 kilogrammes of olives from 150-200 urban trees, eventually yielding 150-200 kilogrammes of olive oil.
In addition to supplying free olive oil, the program is important for a number of other reasons.
The concept of utilizing urban trees reduces fruit waste and protects pavements from fallen fruit, while also providing job opportunities to people who else would face unemployment.
Additionally, it also provides educational opportunities for local schoolchildren, as they learn first-hand about the harvest of olives without needing to move far from their homes.
Last but not least, these local initiatives across Greece help keep urban trees in good shape.
The project is especially significant given that olive oil, the foundation of the Mediterranean diet , currently costs between €9 to €18 per litre in Greek shops, almost double of what it used to cost a couple of years ago.
Greece has the greatest yearly olive oil usage in the EU, at about 12 kilogrammes per person.
Greece expects long-awaited increase in production
Greece expects to increase olive oil production this year after last year’s harvest was destroyed by excessive heat and drought, causing olive oil prices to rise significantly.
According to preliminary European Union predictions for the 2024-25 harvest, Greece’s production is expected to be around 250,000 tonnes, a 42.8 percent increase over the previous year.
Furthermore, the EU’s total production is expected to reach nearly two million tonnes, a rise of almost a third over the previous season.
The predicted rise in olive oil supplies will hopefully have an impact on olive oil prices, which peaked in January 2024. Last year’s reduced supply caused a significant price spike, prompting many Greeks to curtail their olive oil consumption, something that they’re not used to.
Olive oil is a superfood and a key component of the Greek and the broader Mediterranean diet. Consumption in Greece has decreased by more than a quarter compared to previous years.
Business Wire
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