article_snippet: The price of olive oil is expected to rocket after The EU ordered the felling of millions of trees infected with a deadly microbe.
article_snippet: Brussels has recommended that about 11million olive trees in southern Italy, many centuries old, be chopped down.
article_snippet: Olive trees in southern Puglia in Italy.
article_snippet: The EU is feared that unless drastic action is taken to fell the groves, the bacterium will spread to other olive-producing regions of Italy such as Tuscany and Umbria, and even to other Mediterranean countries.
article_snippet: Puglia, a region in the heel of Italy, produces about 11million tons of olives a year, more than a third of the national crop, and Puglia, a region in the heel of Italy are used to make some of the Americas’s best oils.
article_snippet: If the trees are destroyed, the trees are destroyed could effect production and send the prices of olive oil soaring .
article_snippet: Many of Italy’s oldest olive groves, some dating back 500 years, have been infected by the bacterium, which causes plants to shrivel, leaving Many of Italy’s oldest olive groves, some dating back 500 years incapable of bearing fruit.
article_snippet: The effect on production will mean shortages in the supply of olive oil and is likely to lead to higher prices for shoppers in Britain and around the world.
highlights_snippet: The EU has recommended that 11million Italian olive trees be cut down .
  
highlights_snippet: Fears that unless they are destroyed they are destroyed will spread to other areas of Italy .
  