Ann: Australian Crop & Company Update, page-48

I was just over there Ashentegra!
Travelled in Spain & Portugal , .. and Morocco ,. briefly too.
Plus Southern France then across pretty much- jumped to Corsica and up then & got myself across and through Italy to Greece.

They are planting olive trees like there is no tomorrow- everywhere, and I mean literally.

In the deserts of Morocco exploiting underground aquifers. Spain- hugely. Huge. Truly huge. Unimaginable but you just go past olive trees constantly (& like in Greece )
Tourism is no1 for Greece , then olive oil. And either the same or flipped to be agriculture then tourism for Spain. They are all, these 3 inc Morocco, aiming to increase tourism.
Without doubt tourism no1 in major tourist cities

Thought had seen olive trees for thousands & thousands of kms, and I had, then suddenly went through the densest and largest number of olive trees region, before Granada pretty sure.
Absolutely unreal

Plus every single inch of Greece. & every island.
Greece = olive trees. Plus pine trees and cork trees.
There I spoke with fellows who were serving at hotel where stayed . One , he and his father have 2 million trees, that they pick , by hand, themselves ! (everyone by necessity is also involved in hospitality, tourist main centres., until tourist season ends,) Greece is all hand-picked. Very high quality.
The taxi driver who picked me up Athens- has 2ha. about.
Another fellow also near Delphi, explained that they’re friends all begging them for some olive oil.
They all said 9€ ! extraordinary prices for them of course - though unfortunately they had a low harvest. They only got a small amount of oil.

It’s been such a dry year and is the alternate year when the olive yields are lower.

But the no1 factor, heartbreaking time, been the terrible fires in Greece, and on Rhodes etc. Unfortunately like here many deliberately lit. Their local fire fighting very similar to here recent months, but some months ago.
Then next thing they also have had isolated floods, even people died, amidst a few huge rain events, localised watershed events there across southern Europe all after the fires .
Sounds usual hey

But each tree not a big deal. In Greece esp so.
They usually just let friends pick too if small holdings.
And though nice, wasn’t life changing for the taxi driver who suffering besides, though can live off pickups and drop offs to the airport until into November- but all are hurting with inflation and lower tourist numbers.
It’s a family affair managing the trees. The taxi drivers daughter he showed me a photo of driving their 1962 tractor, had been his dads. in the orchard which exactly the same as ford old tractor my parents still have which still in use for small jobs on their property,

There is no shortage of olive trees in the world.