Olive
The olive is the emblem of the Mediterranean: a tough evergreen that endures hot, dry summers and needs only a mild winter chill to fruit, yet is killed by hard frost. It rings the Mediterranean and its climate-twins, with Spain the overwhelming leader.
How it grows
Olive grows on a tree — the fruit ripens above the ground, up in the canopy.
What it’s worth to grow
Farm-gate value = the price farmers are paid per kilogram (FAOSTAT producer prices, median of 154 positive country-year observations spanning 2018–2024). It tracks how costly and labour-intensive a crop is to grow — almonds and vanilla command a premium; potatoes and cereals are cheap staples.
Where Earth's climate suits olive
Climatic suitability only — scored for every 0.5° of the planet from this crop's temperature and rainfall tolerances (FAO EcoCrop) on AgroClim 1991–2025 normals (AgERA5 temperature, CHIRPS/ERA5 rainfall). It shows where the rain-fed climate permits the crop, not where it is grown today; irrigation lets many crops thrive in drier country than the map suggests (California, Egypt, the Indus and Nile).
Who grows it — and where the climate merely allows it
The climate where it grows
— mean monthly temperature ▍ monthly rainfall — averaged over the actual growing areas (the suitable cells) inside each country, so it reflects where the crop is really grown, not the national average. AgroClim 1991–2025 normals. The 🌧 badge is the last 3 months’ rainfall as a percentage of the 1991–2020 CHIRPS normal (through 2025-12) — the current drought/deluge signal.
Climate envelope · FAO EcoCrop
Deep bar = optimal range; pale bar = absolute tolerance. Beyond the pale bar the crop fails. Latitude tolerance ±50° · soil pH 5.3–8.5.
Growing calendar & hazards
An evergreen perennial that flowers in spring after a mild winter and is harvested from autumn into winter, often in alternate heavy-and-light 'on' and 'off' years.
- Hard freeze. Temperatures below about −10°C kill wood and can take out whole groves.
- Drought. Deeply drought-tolerant, but yield still falls in the driest years.
- Xylella. The bacterium Xylella fastidiosa has killed millions of trees in southern Italy.