Olive Conservation in Malta

Photo credit: rosevita from morguefile.com

Indigenous olive trees growing in Malta were at risk of being lost and replaced by imported cultivars.  Dating back over 2000 years these native trees have shown good resistance to disease especially to attack from the olive fruit fly.

To prevent the loss of these ancient trees retired jeweller Sam Cremona set up the PRIMO project (a collaboration between the Maltese Government and the Bank of Valletta) which is working to use grafted cuttings to increase the stock.

The long term aim of the project is to have over 30,000 trees grown across Malta and Gozo enabling the production of monocultivar Maltese olive oil.