Abstract
Worldwide olive industry has expanded into new climatic regions outside the Mediterranean basin due to an increase in extra virgin olive oil demand posing new challenges. This is the case of Uruguay, South America, where the olive crop area reached 10,000 hectares in the last 15 years and is intended to the production of EVOO. Uruguay has a temperate humid climate with mean precipitations above 1,100 mm per year but unequally distributed, mild winters, and warm summers, with mean annual temperatures of 17.7°C. Different agroecological conditions require local knowledge to achieve good productivity whereby the objective of this work was to show the feasibility and potential of olive oil production under our climatic conditions. For this the agronomic performance of Arbequina, Barnea, Frantoio, Leccino, Manzanilla de Sevilla, and Picual cultivars was evaluated along 10 years of full production. Phenology behavior, vegetative growth rate, productive efficiency, alternate bearing, and oil yield were determined. Sprouting and flowering processes occur in a wide window within the annual cycle between the months of August to November with great interannual variation. More than 8 t/ha fruit yield and 40% oil yields in dry weight basis were obtained in promising cultivars. However, alternate bearing arose as the main production limiting factor, with ABI values greater than 0.60 for most cultivars. We conclude that olive oil production in humid climate regions is feasible and the most promising cultivars based on productive efficiency are Arbequina and Picual.
Highlights
In the last decades, the worldwide olive industry had expanded into new climatic regions outside the Mediterranean basin due to an increase in extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) demand associated to its beneficial effects on human health
Olive introduction dates back to 1,780 along with the Spanish settlers (Pereira et al, 2018) and the first olive growing activity for virgin olive oil production started in the 1930s
Since 2002, modern orchards were planted for virgin olive oil production, increased from 500 to 9,000 hectares (Ackermann et al, 2018) with high technology olive oil mill
Summary
The worldwide olive industry had expanded into new climatic regions outside the Mediterranean basin due to an increase in extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) demand associated to its beneficial effects on human health Different humid regions are under olive cultivation, from wet hot summers, and cold dry winters—Wudu, China (Wang et al, 2018) to tropical—Queensland, Australia (Mailer et al, 2010) or temperate humid regions with high humidity, precipitation above 1,100 mm/year and moderate temperatures—Southern Brazil and Uruguay (Torres et al, 2017). In all of these new regions, EVOO.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
