Olive fly Bactrocera oleae and the bacteria Xylella fastidiosa are serious concerns for olive growers. Tearing down thousands of olive trees because of disease is devastating for the environment.
I recently talked to Fabienne Maestracci a talented olive grower from Bonifacio the southernmost tip of Corsica. We talked
mostly about her winning both gold and silver medals for her harvesting of Corsican
olive oils. Understandably, she was thrilled to
win the awards but what I found alarming was the fear she expressed over the
dreaded Xylella fastidiosa. The
disease was spotted for the first time near
her orchard around this time last year causing great concern in France’s Isle de la Beauté . Thankfully the infected plants were destroyed.
However, Fabienne feels that “the danger would always be there” and says that more
can be done to control plants being imported. It seems Xyella
fastidious came to Europe via an infected plant that came from Costa Rica.
Olive growers
already have the olive fly to worry about. Known as Bactrocera oleae, the invasion takes
place when the female olive fly
lays its eggs in the fruit, just under the skin. The fruit rots fall
to the ground prematurely and cannot be used.
Olive growers know that if they don’t
adopt a reliable fruit control program they can easily lose all their fruit. To make matters worse, these last few years
we’ve been having mild winters and humid summers ideal thriving conditions for
the olive fly.
Xylella fastidiosa is different. There is no known remedy for this plant bacteria classed as one of the most dangerous in the world. It attacks
citrus fruits, olive trees, grape vines and a
lot more plants. Although not dangerous to humans, once the disease is established, it starts infecting other
plants.
We first heard
of the disease in Europe in 2013 when it caused widespread devastation in
Southern Italy then later in 2015 in France. To
combat the disease, Italian farmers had to chop down their olive trees; to prevent the
disease from spreading they were forced to destroy thousands of ancient olive trees.
If we keep doing
that though we'll have an environmental
problem. Although the European Parliament is doing its best to keep the
disease at bay, this is a problem for everyone everywhere: for
gardeners, horticulturists, as well as consumers of extra virgin olive oil. Lovers
of exotic plants have to be more careful what they bring back into
the country and also what they order on the internet.
As the
International Olive Oil Council says “Given the natural capacity of olive trees
to store atmospheric CO2 in the soil, our message could be ‘that olive oil is
both healthy and good for the environment.'
Let’s try to keep it that way.
