El Niño decimates Peruvian olive harvest

Officials in Peru anticipate a 90 percent decrease in olive oil production before the 2024 harvest, citing climate extremes attributed to El Niño. Local producers estimate the country will produce between 700 and 1,000 tons of olive oil in 2024, down from 7,000 tons produced in 2023. Peru produces less than 10,000 tons of olive oil in an average crop year. With the development of El Niño, Peru tends to experience higher annual average temperatures. During this cycle, many olive trees did not receive the necessary chill hours to bear fruit. Heavy rains during the flowering period in the olive groves, primarily in arid southwestern Peru, lost their flowers and will not produce any fruit. “More so than the rain, the problem has been the need for sufficient chill hours,” Manuel Morales Ordóñez, the president of the Association of Table Olive and Olive Oil Producers and Exporters of Peru (Pro Olivo), told Olive Oil Times. “The Criolla olive [which accounts for 85 to 90 percent of table ...