Olive trees in the Mediterranean areas

The olive is an evergreen small tree or shrub native to the Mediterranean Basin from the Middle East to Portugal. The olive has initially been planted 7,000 years ago in Mediterranean countries. Today about 867 million olive trees are on the planet, occupying approximately 9.7 million hectares.

Olive trees cover 1.1 million hectares in Italy, thus generating 1.87 million tons of pruning biomass. This biomass is repurposed as a tanning agent instead of being sent to landfield and causing CO₂ emissions.