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 World Harvest 2004/5 May 2005 The 2004/5 European harvest has not been a good one in terms of quantity. Unusual weather patterns throughout the year led to low yields. Some regions had a second or third year of low summer rainfall. Some regions had rain at the wrong time, particularly when the harvest was due to be gathered. In the Cordoba area, for example, the harvest had to be stopped as the rain caused groves to became a quagmire and tractors could not be moved. Indeed Spain was particularly badly hit and total harvest figures are expected to be below one million tonnes. This shortfall follows generally low production in 2003 when certain regions such as central Italy were very badly hit with yields 50% or even 60% below normal. Greece, too, was extremely badly hit with production down 30% or 40% in total. Spanish production did something to offset the problem that year but not enough. In addition there was an equally bad (though for different reasons) harvest in 2003. As a result of all of this prices are going up and producers are holding back, waiting see just how high they will go. At the same time the downward pressure on prices from the large supermarket outlets, in the UK in particular, continues and I fear for the quality of oil going into own labels and mass brands. At the top end of the market the news is rather better. From an overview of the 250 or so oils which came into my office for tasting for possible inclusion in the new edition of my book Judy Ridgway’s Best Olive Oil Buys Round The World I would conclude that though quantities may have been small in 2005, quality has been good. Spain in particular seems to have produced a range of delicate to medium oils which are not too expensively priced but which hold their own with top class oils from other regions. This observation takes in Extremadura in the west as well as Jaen and Cordoba in the south and Catalonia in the north. Top quality Ligurian oils, on the other hand, are getting more and more difficult to find. Why this should be so I do not know. The Taggiasca olive can produce oils which are rather short-lived but there is no excuse for tired oils at this time of the year. I should point out that there are a few exceptions but not many. In other parts of Italy, Sicily continues its climb up the olive oil popularity stakes with more and more producers exporting their premium oils to other parts of Italy and to northern Europe and, in some cases, to the US. There is a good deal of interest in the denocciolata method of processing without the stones here and a number of producers are toying with the idea of using it for at least one of their oils. Sadly Greece is not as well represented as I would like in the new book and this seems to be because there are only a few Greek entrepreneurs with an understanding of the world outside Greece. It is very difficult to buy more than three or four brands of Greek oil in the UK and this pattern seems to be repeated in other areas too. French oils are also often difficult to source but I did find two or three really excellent oil from the Vallee des Baux and Haute Provence regions. The harvest in the Southern hemisphere is currently underway. Predictions are for large quantities and hopefully they will also be of good quality. I travel to Australia shortly and will report backing in my next Travel Diary. |
