AUTHOR=Conde-Innamorato Paula , Arias-Sibillotte Mercedes , Villamil Juan José , Bruzzone Juliana , Bernaschina Yesica , Ferrari Virginia , Zoppolo Roberto , Villamil José , Leoni Carolina 

TITLE=It Is Feasible to Produce Olive Oil in Temperate Humid Climate Regions

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Plant Science

VOLUME=Volume 10 - 2019

YEAR=2019

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2019.01544

DOI=10.3389/fpls.2019.01544

ISSN=1664-462X

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 1100 mm per year but unequally distributed, mild winters and warm summers, with mean annual temperatures of 17.7 °C. Different agroecological conditions require new technological knowledge to achieve good productivity whereby the objective of this work was evaluate the agronomic performance of Arbequina, Barnea, Frantoio, Leccino, Manzanilla de Sevilla and Picual cultivars along 10-years of full production. Phenology behaviour, 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. Considering the productive efficiency Arbequina and Picual stand out as promising cultivars. Olives and oil production in humid climate regions is feasible, however to improve productive efficiency and regular production, more local research is needed to account for cultivars x environment x management interactions. Variability in winter cold offer, fruit set weather conditions, irrigation and nutrition management associated with chemical soils traits, differential pruning technics based on the cultivar’s vigour expressed and disease management constitute aspects to be prioritized in future research lines.