Sitia blends traditional olive cultivation with innovative, nature-based solutions to adapt to climate extremes and secure resilience.
Within the Mediterranean, olive oil is often referred to as “liquid gold”, a term already used in Homer’s Iliad to describe the Greek warrior Achilles being washed with oil. This expression alludes to the high cultural, symbolic, economic, and practical value that olive oil has held in Mediterranean societies from antiquity to the present. It has been praised for its various health benefits, its distinctive taste and central role in cuisine and food production, its historical importance and the meticulous, detail-oriented processes of its production.
The source of this “liquid gold” is the olive tree, a defining feature of the Mediterranean landscape, whose wild ancestors first emerged in the Eastern Mediterranean millions of years ago. Archaeological evidence suggests that the domestication of the olive tree and the earliest olive oil production began in the late Neolithic period in the Mediterranean region (around 7000 BCE), when communities first practiced settled farming, animal domestication, pottery-making, and permanent architecture.
The Mediterranean’s climate and soil are ideally suited for olive cultivation. Olive trees are remarkably resilient: they can withstand prolonged droughts, require high and low temperatures to thrive, show resistance to many common pests and diseases, and, once mature, are even capable of surviving wildfires and regenerating afterwards.
Today, more than 11.5 million hectares worldwide are cultivated with olive trees, 95% of which are located in the Mediterranean basin. Within the European Union, the leading producers are Spain, Italy, Greece, and Portugal, which together account for nearly half of the total cultivated area and represent 41% of global olive production. Olive oil is not only a valuable source of economic revenue but also plays a crucial role in sustaining rural economies in the Mediterranean. In recent years, global demand for olive oil has grown significantly, with consumption and use expanding due to its many health benefits, distinctive taste, and its appealing sensory qualities. In 2022, the Mediterranean region alone accounted for about 98% of global olive oil production.
Modernisation meets climate pressure
Despite the olive tree’s resilience to harsh weather conditions, several developments in recent years have negatively affected olive cultivation and olive oil production. On the one hand, rising global demand for olive oil has driven changes in cultivation and processing techniques aimed at increasing yields. However, such modernisation efforts have often exacerbated existing environmental challenges and concerns linked to olive oil production. On the other hand, the impacts of climate change in the Mediterranean pose serious threats to the sustainability of olive cultivation. They influence the physiology, growth, and yield of olive trees, increase the prevalence of pests and diseases, and affect the quality of table olives and olive oil.
The impacts of climate change in the Mediterranean pose serious threats to the sustainability of olive cultivation. They influence the physiology, growth, and yield of olive trees, increase the prevalence of pests and diseases, and affect the quality of table olives and olive oil.
Olive oil production itself bears significant environmental concerns and challenges. Along its value chain, including the cultivation of olive trees, harvesting, transportation to mills, pressing, and subsequent distribution, each stage is energy-intensive and contributes substantially to greenhouse gas emissions.
In addition to energy-intensive manufacturing processes, the cultivation of olive trees and the production of olive oil generate large volumes of solid and liquid waste, including olive leaves, pomace, and olive mill wastewater. As shown by a 2022 study on valorising the usage of olive leaves, bioactive compounds, biological activities, and food applications, these by-products increasingly pose economic and environmental challenges. Among them, olive mill wastewater is particularly problematic, with significant environmental impacts such as soil pollution, greenhouse gas emissions, foul odors, and the inhibition of plant and insect development. As global demand for olive oil continues to rise, the accumulation of these residues underscores the urgent need for sustainable management solutions.
At the same time, climate change has made olive cultivation in the Mediterranean basin increasingly difficult, with forecasts pointing to further negative impacts in the future. The region is already experiencing rising temperatures and declining rainfall, which has led to more frequent extreme weather events and worsening water scarcity. Although olive trees are naturally resilient to drought and capable of withstanding high and low temperatures, these changes are progressively affecting tree health, productivity, and the quality of olives and olive oil. In many areas, farmers have turned to irrigation to compensate for reduced rainfall. In 2024, a study on enhancing olive cultivation resilience projected that olive yields could decline by 15-20% in rainfed groves, while irrigation needs may increase by up to 18.5%, raising concerns about the long-term sustainability of rainfed olive cultivation.
Olive yields could decline by 15-20% in rainfed groves, while irrigation needs may increase by up to 18.5%, raising concerns about the long-term sustainability of rainfed olive cultivation.
Furthermore – as the study confirmed -, more frequent and irregular high-intensity rainfall events accelerate soil erosion, altering organic carbon availability and nutrient cycling, which in turn hinders tree growth and development. Warmer winters, marked by insufficient cold periods, cause earlier and faster fruit ripening, leading to increased pre-harvest fruit drop and therefore a decreased harvest. Shifts in temperature patterns also influence the prevalence and severity of pests and diseases, adding another layer of stress for olive trees.
Pioneering sustainable olive cultivation
In response to climate change and growing pressure on the value chain, efforts to develop and implement more sustainable agricultural practices mainly focus on reducing farming inputs, such as pesticides, herbicides, water, energy, and machinery, as well as enhancing supply chain sustainability through alternative energy sources, nature-based solutions, and the reduction of carbon-intensive processes. Many of these strategies require a fundamental shift in farming approach and remain the subject of on-going research.
In olive cultivation, recent years have witnessed a variety of research initiatives and pilot projects within the Mediterranean region aimed at developing more sustainable and climate-friendly methods of growing olive trees and producing olive oil. These include less carbon-intensive production, measures to help olive trees to adapt to the effects of climate change, and efforts to minimise the environmental footprint of olive oil production. The use of the waste and by-products generated by olive oil production as raw materials and their valorisation as bioactive chemicals in the production of packaging material, cosmetics as well as fertilisers and animal-feed, is one of these potential shifts in olive oil production.
One example of a region actively working to make its olive oil production more sustainable and climate-friendly, is Sitia, a town on the northeastern coast of the Greek island Crete. Sitia is considered a climate hotspot, and is among the European regions most exposed to extreme heat, droughts, and wildfires during the summer. The wider region is home to the Sitia UNESCO Global Geopark, a unique geotourism destination characterised by a rich variety of abiotic and biotic features. Olive cultivation is the main agricultural activity in Sitia, with the region producing around 11,000 tons of olives annually for high-quality extra-virgin olive oil. This olive oil carries the Protected Denomination of Origin Extra-Virgin Olive Oil label, highlighting the typical and traditional features of Sitia’s production.
In recent years, several initiatives and projects have sought to tackle Sitia’s climate challenges and support a transition towards greater climate resilience.
Dr. Thanasis Sfetsos, Research Director at NCSR Demokritos in Athens, specialises in climate resilience for infrastructures and cities as well as the development of nature-based solutions. He coordinates the EU-funded project Med-IREN and participates in Regions4Climate, both sharing the objective to strengthen Sitia’s resilience to climate change. A key aspect is ensuring the long-term sustainability of the town’s olive oil production, as he explains to REVOLVE:
“Within Regions4Climate, our main focus is on new integrated pest management practices. Some of our researchers have developed a pheromone that combats the olive fruit fly, the most serious pest for olives. This pheromone can replace the need for chemical insecticides. Another activity under Regions4Climate is to make one of Sitia’s olive oil factories carbon neutral. While it will not change the way that olive oil itself is produced, it will make the process more sustainable and climate friendly. For example, we will install heat pumps to store heat in the summer and reuse it in winter during the olive oil production season, especially in the stage where olives are gentle heated before being pressed.”
(Regions4Climate) researchers have developed a pheromone that combats the olive fruit fly, the most serious pest for olives. This pheromone can replace the need for chemical insecticides.
“Med-IREN project does not directly target the sustainability of olive cultivation, but it supports it indirectly by applying nature-based solutions to mitigate extreme weather events such as droughts or floods on the critical infrastructures. For example, we will study how the implementation of NBS with a focus on endemic species planted in seasonal streams can contribute to flood prevention, and we are studying local drought-resilient plants that can be planted alongside crops such as olive trees to potentially reduce the impacts of droughts.
Thanasis acknowledges that recent years have been especially difficult in Sitia, with scarce rainfall and extreme heat striking the town and its surrounding region. “The drought affects the crops, not only in terms of quantity but also in the quality of yields”, he explains. Yet, the initiatives under way in Sitia to strengthen climate resilience highlight a range of strategies that could ultimately be replicated in other Mediterranean regions facing similar challenges.
