Europe’s Brutal 2022 Drought — and the Coming Olive Squeeze
In hindsight, the summer of 2022 was the fuse. Europe baked through what many called its worst drought in centuries, and the stressed, thirsty olive groves of the Mediterranean set the stage for the price shock of 2023.
What happened
The summer of 2022 brought record-breaking heat and one of the worst droughts in Europe in living memory, parching Spain, Italy, Portugal and beyond. Olive trees are famously drought-hardy — but there is a limit, and a second dry year in a row at flowering and fruit-set meant a poor crop in the dominant producing countries.
Why it mattered
This was the year the supply side broke. A short harvest from a drought-hit Spain, with reserves already thin, is precisely what sent prices to a 26-year high in 2023 and on to the shortage of 2024. The bill that shoppers paid in 2023–24 was written in the dry fields of 2022.
One drought is weather; a run of them is the trend. The olive earned its reputation as the tree that thrives where others fail — on heat, stone and thirst — but the modern Mediterranean is testing even that legendary toughness. It’s also why the crop keeps spreading to new lands on five continents: the old heartland is no longer the safe bet it once was.
Background: widely reported as Europe’s worst drought in roughly 500 years (European Drought Observatory / Copernicus, summer 2022).