ITALY-ECONOMY-AGRICULTURE-OLIVES

ITALY-ECONOMY-AGRICULTURE-OLIVES

TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY ANGUS MACKINNON – A picture shows toasted bread with olive oil at the Buonamici Farm nestles in the hills of Fiesole, just outside Florence, Tuscany, on December 2, 2014. Disastrous olive harvests in much of southern Europe have sent wholesale prices shooting up, meaning consumers around the world are going to have to get used to paying substantially more for a culinary staple prized equally by gourmets and physicians. At Fiesole, in the heart of Tuscany’s “Chiantishire” — so called because of its rich British ex-patriots — Cesare Buonamici’s olive processing facilities should be whirring at full capacity. Instead, thanks to the olive fly, the sophisticated presses and extraction machines lie dormant for lack of the organically-cultivated fruit that would normally keep them busy until nearly Christmas. AFP PHOTO / TIZIANA FABI