Spanish Olive Trees Find New Home on Hungary’s Slopes as Climate Warms

 A person holds a plate of olives at Babylonstoren at the foot of Simonsberg in the Franschhoek valley in Cape Town, South Africa, September 12, 2024. (Reuters)
A person holds a plate of olives at Babylonstoren at the foot of Simonsberg in the Franschhoek valley in Cape Town, South Africa, September 12, 2024. (Reuters)
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Spanish Olive Trees Find New Home on Hungary’s Slopes as Climate Warms

 A person holds a plate of olives at Babylonstoren at the foot of Simonsberg in the Franschhoek valley in Cape Town, South Africa, September 12, 2024. (Reuters)
A person holds a plate of olives at Babylonstoren at the foot of Simonsberg in the Franschhoek valley in Cape Town, South Africa, September 12, 2024. (Reuters)

Csaba Torok, who grows olives on Hungary's warm southern slopes near Lake Balaton, believes his trees from southern Europe have found a successful new home as Europe's climate gets warmer.

Torok, 55, got his first three small olive trees from Spain around 2008. Two froze to death the first winter but one survived, prompting Torok to buy around 200 more over the years to plant in his vineyard on Hegymagas, a volcanic butte formation with sunny slopes, ample rain and rich soil.

"I see these trees as an integral part of the future landscape here," Torok said, as he harvested the olives with friends, noting the local microclimate increasingly suits the trees.

He takes his hand-picked olive crop to neighboring Slovenia where his virgin olive oil is made and which he sells for 4500 forints ($12.35) per 0.1 liters.

As southern Europe is hit by more frequent droughts and scorching heatwaves, the areas where olive groves can flourish appear to be shifting northwards, he said.

Hungary's winters have become palpably milder over the past years. Europe is the fastest warming continent in the world, the European Environment Agency said last month, and faces a greater risk of drought in the south.

Spain, which usually supplies around 40% of the world's olive oil, has suffered poor olive harvests in the past two years due to heatwaves and a prolonged drought, doubling olive oil prices to record levels.

Last week, the Spanish farm ministry said the first estimates for this year's harvest indicated a recovery, with 2024-2025 olive production forecast at 1,262,300 tons, up 48% from the previous harvest.

In southern Hungary, near the city of Pecs, Gabor Stix has been experimenting with an olive grove for years, cultivating trees for sale. Stix expects all his trees grown this year to be sold by March.

"Olive trees love this climate. ... One would think Hungary is not suitable for olive production, but it is," Stix said.

Even north of Hungary, in Slovakia, people have been buying olive trees for their gardens to have a "Mediterranean feeling". In the village of Iza, garden center owner Istvan Vass has imported 25 truckloads of olive trees from Spain this year, selling them for 300-500 euros each.

As buyers arrived to choose trees, Vass warned that during the first winter the trees might suffer damage from sub-zero temperatures, but covering them helps.

"There are lots of olive trees planted outside in the gardens and they cope really well," he said.



Prince William Takes Early-Morning Nature Walk Near South Africa’s Table Mountain

 Prince William, Prince of Wales talks to Megan Taplin, Park Manager for Table Mountain National Park during his visit at Signal Hill on November 05, 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Ian Vogler/Pool via Reuters)
Prince William, Prince of Wales talks to Megan Taplin, Park Manager for Table Mountain National Park during his visit at Signal Hill on November 05, 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Ian Vogler/Pool via Reuters)
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Prince William Takes Early-Morning Nature Walk Near South Africa’s Table Mountain

 Prince William, Prince of Wales talks to Megan Taplin, Park Manager for Table Mountain National Park during his visit at Signal Hill on November 05, 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Ian Vogler/Pool via Reuters)
Prince William, Prince of Wales talks to Megan Taplin, Park Manager for Table Mountain National Park during his visit at Signal Hill on November 05, 2024 in Cape Town, South Africa. (Ian Vogler/Pool via Reuters)

Prince William went on an early-morning nature walk near South Africa's Table Mountain on Tuesday to promote the work of conservation rangers in a unique urban national park.

The Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne met with some of the rangers who guard the Table Mountain National Park, an 85-square-mile (220-square kilometer) area that overlooks Cape Town and spills into the city's suburbs in some areas.

William didn't go to the top of the famous flat-topped mountain, instead strolling through nature trails on Signal Hill, a foothill that sits by the ocean's edge.

The prince was accompanied on the walk by Megan Taplin, the park manager, and Robert Irwin, an Australian conservationist. William met with rangers, park firefighters and members of a K-9 dog unit.

“He got to learn about what they do on a daily basis and what challenges they face,” Taplin said. “We also spoke a lot about ranger wellness and how that's really important that rangers are supported, that their families are supported, because they are doing quite dangerous work and difficult work.”

William is in South Africa to promote his annual Earthshot Prize, which awards $1.2 million in grants to five entrepreneurs or organizations for innovative ideas that help the environment and combat climate change. William set up the Earthshot Prize in 2020 through his Royal Foundation and the awards ceremony will be held in Cape Town — the first time it's been in Africa — on Wednesday night.

The prince's four-day visit is a kind of environmental roadshow and is heavily focused on climate and conservation, though he did break away from those issues on his first day in Cape Town on Monday to attend a rugby practice at a local high school and play a little of South Africa's favorite sport with some of the kids.

William was also due to meet with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa at the president's Cape Town residence on Tuesday.

William has a range of engagements planned in South Africa's second-biggest city, including meetings with young environmentalists, attending a wildlife summit, visiting a botanical garden and spending time at a sea rescue institute and with a Cape Town fishing community.

William last visited Africa in 2018 but he has a strong connection to the continent. He traveled there as a boy after the death of his mother, Princess Diana, in a Paris car crash in 1997. He and his wife, Kate, got engaged at a wildlife conservancy in Kenya in 2010. And he said he came up with the idea for the Earthshot awards while in Namibia in 2018.

Before the visit, William said that Africa has always had “a special place in my heart.” William's brother Prince Harry visited South Africa and neighboring Lesotho last month for a charity he set up in southern Africa.

William's wife Kate, the Princess of Wales, and their children Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis did not travel to South Africa. Kate only recently returned to some public duties after completing treatment for an undisclosed type of cancer.