These ancient olive trees are very healthy at Casa Meleto in Sinalunga, Tuscany.

Italy will run out of homegrown olive oil by April because of freak weather and a disease that has devastated olive harvests and will probably send supermarket prices soaring. Harvest in Puglia, which produces most of Italy’s olive oil, has especially been affected by disease.

The Italian farming lobby, Coldiretti, issued the warning. It said the nation’s olive harvest last autumn dropped 57 per cent to 185,000 tonnes, a 25-year low. This will keep Italian consumers going for only about four months this year. “We risk for ever losing the chance to consume Italian extra virgin olive oil, which will have disastrous effects on the economy, jobs, health and the countryside ….  read full article