The Oli Empordà Protected Designation of Origin (DOP) foresees the “scarce” olive harvest in recent decades due to the drought but with a “high quality” oil.
Its president, Simó Casanovas, says that the lack of water has caused the trees to suffer vegetatively and that the spring heat has not helped either.
“Trees have biological memory and want to survive adverse situations. This means that they do not produce olives or produce few,” he explains.
In this sense, it estimates that production will be 50% lower than in a normal year. “At most, 150,000 liters when normally it is 300,000,” he says. “As far as I remember, it has never happened in more than 40 years, let alone three consecutive vintages,” he adds.
The drought is fully affecting the oil production of the Empordà DOP. The producers of the region started the harvest a few weeks ago and the forecast is that it will be 50% lower than that of a normal year. “If the normal thing is to collect about 300,000 liters, at most it will be 150,000,” says Casanovas.
“We have already had two harvests well below the normal average in these regions. In fact, it is the third consecutive year of very low harvests, but this one will be even lower,” adds the president of the DOP.
Casanovas says that the oil will be of “high quality” because the September rains have helped the fruit ripen. “The olives have a correct yield with oil and the quality we are obtaining, for the moment, is very good,” adds Casanovas.
Low production will have a rebound impact on the price. “Evidently it will be higher than last year because if there is no production we must make a profit; but it will be at market prices,” he adds.
Regarding the possibility that crops will end up being abandoned due to low profitability, Casanovas does not believe it will happen, at least in the DOP Empordà where 80% of the olive trees are centenary. “The majority of olive groves are family-owned and are not the main crop,” he says. And this, paradoxically, will help maintain them.
“If it were for profitability, there probably wouldn’t be one,” he insists. However, he says that producers have been adopting measures for some time to adapt to the extreme drought scenario in which the country and the region are immersed.
Regarding the thefts that are taking place in several regions, Casanovas says he is “alert” although at the moment they are not aware that there have been any in olive groves or cooperatives. “No associate has told us about it but it is possible that it could happen because if it happens in normal years, in this one even more so,” he says.
The PDO Oli Empordà covers the regions of Alt and Baix Empordà and some municipalities of Pla de l’Estany and Gironès. The area has about 2,000 hectares of olive trees, of which 900 are assigned to the denomination. Oil production is divided between four cooperative mills: Mas Auró in Esponellà (Pla de l’Estany), Celler Cooperatiu d’Espolla (Alt Empordà), Empordàlia in Pau (Alt Empordà) and also in Ylla in Cabanes (Alt Empordà). .
