Warming Weather Gives a Boost to Swiss Olive Cultivation

Summary

Rising tem­per­a­tures in French-speak­ing Switzerland are allow­ing farm­ers to expand olive cul­ti­va­tion, with plans to increase the num­ber of olive trees in the region sig­nif­i­cantly. Swiss-made olive oil is expected to gain pop­u­lar­ity, with the goal of estab­lish­ing Switzerland as a val­ued olive oil pro­ducer and pro­mot­ing local agri­cul­ture.

In the foothills of the Alps, a new Swiss-made prod­uct is gain­ing trac­tion.

Farmers in the French-speak­ing part of Switzerland are tak­ing advan­tage of ris­ing tem­per­a­tures to plant olive trees and expand olive cul­ti­va­tion. 

Also known as Suisse Romande, French-speak­ing Switzerland chiefly includes the can­tons of Vaud, Geneva, Neuchâtel and Jura in the west of the coun­try, bor­der­ing France. 

Olive pro­duc­tion in French-speak­ing Switzerland, which has long been anec­do­tal, is set to increase dra­mat­i­cally in the com­ing years.- Frank Siffert, Swiss olive farmer

“Winters have been less cold for the past 20 years, but we could have started [grow­ing olives] more than 20 years ago; peo­ple just had­n’t thought of it,” Frank Siffert, a wine­maker and a pio­neer in olive cul­ti­va­tion in Switzerland from Bonvillars near Lausanne, told Olive Oil Times.

According to MeteoSwiss, the fed­eral office of mete­o­rol­ogy, aver­age tem­per­a­tures have increased notice­ably in the coun­try in the last 20 years. In 2024, the aver­age tem­per­a­ture in Switzerland was 1.4 ºC higher than the long-term aver­age tem­per­a­ture between 1991 and 2020. 

Francophone Switzerland is home to around 4,000 olive trees aged between one and 14 years. Siffert said that the plan is to reach 20,000 trees next year.

See Also:Farmers in Hungary Make Headway in Olive Cultivation

“Olive pro­duc­tion in French-speak­ing Switzerland, which has long been anec­do­tal, is set to increase dra­mat­i­cally in the com­ing years,” he said. ​“We will far sur­pass Ticino, where olive grow­ing has been estab­lished for sev­eral years.”

The south­ern can­ton of Ticino is the country’s main olive-cul­ti­va­tion region and home to around 10,000 olive trees. Olive trees also flour­ish in the Grisons, a neigh­bor­ing can­ton to the east of the coun­try. The Swiss have also been using olive trees to dec­o­rate their gar­dens and orchards for decades. ‘

In 2020, Ticino pro­duced 2,000 liters of extra vir­gin olive oil in the local mills in Sonvico and Losone. Ticino olive oil has also been included in the Swiss inven­tory of culi­nary her­itage since 2021, among other iconic Swiss foods such as Alpine cheeses, rye bread and regional spe­cial­ties includ­ing Longeole sausage and Basler Läckerli bis­cuits.

According to research done by Siffert and his team, the first olive trees were prob­a­bly planted in south­ern Switzerland by Roman legionar­ies. A deed of sale from 769 of an olive grove in Campione, today an Italian vil­lage, is the old­est known doc­u­ment refer­ring to the pres­ence of olive trees in Ticino. 

Initially, olive oil in Switzerland was mainly used as lamp oil. Over the cen­turies, the coun­try’s olive trees suf­fered great destruc­tion from frost and from uproot­ing to give way to mul­berry trees for silk­worm breed­ing. 

However, the cul­ti­va­tion of olives rebounded in the coun­try in the 1980s mainly for culi­nary pur­poses. To cover domes­tic demand that amounts to around 17,000 met­ric tons per annum, Switzerland imports olive oil pri­mar­ily from Spain, Italy and Greece. 

There are cur­rently around 150 to 200 olive cul­ti­vars in Switzerland. Ongoing research will sin­gle out some of the vari­eties best suited for the cli­matic con­di­tions found in the French-speak­ing south­west of the coun­try. 

According to the plan Siffert laid out, DNA analy­ses of olive trees planted more than 20 years ago are sched­uled to be car­ried out this autumn.

Olive trees in Ticino, in southern Switzerland (Photo: Region of Lugano)

The goal is to iden­tify those olive vari­eties that sur­vived the harsh win­ter of 2012, when tem­per­a­tures dropped to ‑15 ºC in the country’s low­lands for two weeks and to ‑18 ºC at alti­tudes of 600 meters.

“Lucques, Leccino, Tanche, Frantoio, Aglandau, Cipressino, Bouteillan and Grossane are some of the most com­mon vari­eties in Switzerland,” Siffert said. 

“Some olive vari­eties can with­stand tem­per­a­tures between ‑15 ºC and ‑26 ºC,” he added. ​“Moufla, a French cul­ti­var which is resis­tant to ‑26 ºC, has not yet been planted.”

However, he noted that regard­less of their tol­er­ance to cold, olive trees are bet­ter adapted to dry weather than to very wet or icy weather, which is typ­i­cal of some parts of Switzerland.

Siffert, who calls the olive tree ​“the inde­struc­tible tree” for its longevity and resis­tance to drought, argued that although the cold Swiss weather can some­times be detri­men­tal to olive trees, it can also act as a shield from dis­ease.

“Olive trees require rel­a­tively lit­tle care and no spe­cial chem­i­cal treat­ment,” Siffert said. 

See Also:Olive Growing Starting to Take Root in Central Europe

“Some dis­eases will arrive, but our win­ter should kill some of the spores and lar­vae, which will help us for many years to come,” he added. ​“The olive fruit fly has already been present in Ticino for years and will surely travel to French-speak­ing Switzerland. “

There are also plans to form an asso­ci­a­tion to pro­mote olive oil pro­duc­tion and mar­ket the olive oil in the French-speak­ing part of Switzerland and across the coun­try. Around 40 pro­duc­ers are expected to par­tic­i­pate in the asso­ci­a­tion’s inau­gural meet­ing in September.

“The asso­ci­a­tion is com­mit­ted to sup­port­ing its active mem­bers in the man­age­ment of their crops, pro­mot­ing inno­va­tion and sus­tain­abil­ity in agri­cul­tural prac­tices and ensur­ing the trace­abil­ity of raw mate­ri­als,” Siffert said. ​“In the long term, this will enable us to con­sider receiv­ing qual­ity labels for our olive oils.”

Siffert’s wish is to see Switzerland among the world’s most val­ued olive oil pro­duc­ers one day. His research has shown that olive trees are a crop suit­able for grow­ing in cer­tain parts of Switzerland, which can also turn into a prof­itable indus­try.

“It is an oppor­tu­nity for the future of local agri­cul­ture,” he said. 

He also counts on the cred­i­bil­ity of the ​“Swiss made” logo, widely accepted as a sym­bol of qual­ity and reli­a­bil­ity, to gain recog­ni­tion for the olive oil pro­duced in the French-speak­ing part of Switzerland. 

“It will be a local prod­uct that will sell very well, because the Swiss love local pro­duce,” he said. ​“What is more, the Swiss-made label will offer a guar­an­tee of qual­ity among for­eign oils, which are not always con­trolled and guar­an­teed.”