BEJA, Portugal — If your favorite bottle of Mediterranean olive oil starts costing more, blame unseasonable European weather — and tiny insects.
High spring temperatures, a cool summer and abundant rain are taking a big bite out of the olive harvest in some key regions of Italy, Spain, France and Portugal. Those conditions also have helped the proliferation of the olive fly and olive moth, which are calamitous blights.
The shortfall, which could translate into higher shelf prices for some olive oils, is dealing another blow to southern Europe’s bruised economies as they limp out of a protracted financial crisis.
Olive oil is big business in southern European Union countries. They are the source of more than 70 percent of the world’s olive oil, bringing export revenue of almost $2.2 billion last year.
“This crop is not to be remembered. This is a crop to be forgotten in every aspect,” said Augusto Spagnoli, an organic olive grower from Nerola, near Rome.
