Chainsaw Thieves are Destroying Centuries-Old Mediterranean Trees in Greece as Olive Oil Prices Rise

The significant increase in olive oil prices, partly caused by a two-year drought in Spain, has become a money-making opportunity for criminals across the Mediterranean. They break into oil depots, dilute high-quality oil with inferior product and falsify delivery days in olive centres in Greece, Spain and Italy. But worst of all, the gangs use chainsaws to steal heavily laden branches and even entire trees from unguarded groves, Ekathimerini writes.

After decades of growth, the global olive oil market has been undermined by a nearly two-year drought in Spain, which typically accounts for about 40% of global supply. 

Global olive oil production is expected to fall to 2.5 million metric tonnes this crop year, down from 3.4 million a year earlier.

Comparable prices in Spain, Greece and Italy for extra virgin oil reached €9 ($4.35 per pound) in September, more than triple the level of 2019.

This means higher prices for consumers. In Greece, a 1-litre bottle of extra virgin oil jumped from $8-9 last year to $15 this year.

"Olive thieves can sometimes produce more oil than the owners themselves," says Athens gardener Konstantinos Markou, whose 15 olive trees, including 150-year-old specimens, were cut down by thieves.

So now he will go out to patrol his own grove every night.

Crimes like this mean fewer olives for producers already struggling with high production costs due to climate change, which has brought warmer winters, more flooding and more intense forest fires.

In southern Italy, oil producers are pleading with the police to set up an agriculture unit.

Greek farmers also want to bring back rural police units that were abolished in 2010.

In Spain, an oil company has installed tracking devices that look like olives to try to catch thieves.

Branches are stolen most often. When a whole tree is cut down, the thieves usually cut it up and load the pieces into a pickup truck, sell the wood at a logging site or to firewood dealers, and take the olives to the oil mill.

Thefts are forcing some growers to harvest early, which means accepting lower yields to avoid long-term damage to their trees.

In October, Spanish police said they had seized 91 tonnes of stolen olives in recent weeks. In February, six people were arrested in southern Greece for stealing 8 tonnes of olive oil in a series of warehouse break-ins over several weeks.