Due in large part to severe weather and an abundance of fruit flies, olive oil producers throughout Tuscany are making bleak predictions for this year’s harvest.
Enrico Rabazzi, regional vice president of the Confederazione Italiana Agricoltori, explained that ‘crops have been completely decimated, and now it’s estimated that overall production will decrease by 40 percent.’
This statistic touches nearly every agricultural enterprise in the region, since an estimated 95 percent of Tuscan farms have olive trees somewhere on their properties.
Moreover, Rabazzi has emphasized that the problems extend beyond simple scarcity: producers worry that the fruit fly infestations will compromise the quality of the oil, affecting not only taste but also the image of Protected Geographical Indication Tuscan products if the strict chemical criteria required to maintain these designations cannot be met.
