Today that’s changing, and like a growing number of young people in Italy, Morisani

is returning to the land his family harvested for centuries. He and his American-
born wife are the entrepreneurial minds behind EXAU, a manufacturer of high-end
olive oil in Calabria. Their product, which they plan to ship to Canada soon, was
voted in 2020 as one of Oprah’s “favourite things.”

They love what they do, but point out that it’s also a lot of tough work.

“They have to be babysat,” says Mapes of newly planted olive trees. “You really
have to take care of them.”

And climate change is not making that job any easier.

Irregular harvest
Changes in weather patterns are presenting a host of challenges for olive oil
producers.

“I think from a quality standpoint, farmers and producers will have to pay more
attention than they ever did before,” says Selina Wang, an expert in food science
at the University of California, Davis. “Before, you knew what to expect: you can
harvest [the olives] at the same time, you can irrigate in a similar way. But now
we need to change that.”
In 2017, the first year of Morisani and Mapes’ operation in Calabria, on the
southern tip of the Italian “boot,” an unusual blast of cold air struck the grove
early in the harvest cycle.

The past two winters, mild weather has been a concern for them. The olive tree
needs consistently cold nights — but not too cold — to prevent a fruit fly known as
Bactrocera oleae from ravaging the trees.

“If the winter is not cold and [the bugs] survive, they multiply themselves and
attack the tree,” Morisani says. The fly, he says, can chew through an entire tree
in a matter of days. “It’s incredible.”
“We don’t have the kind of rain [patterns] we used to have in the past,” he adds.
“Either it’s too much rain — so there are these ‘water bombs,’ or it’s dry,
completely dry.”