73. Climate change: the advent of tropical crops in Europe

A summer of heatwaves across Europe in 2026 serves as a reminder — as if we needed one — of the way our climate is changing. This hot weather affects many sectors, not least agriculture, and it puts many farmers under yet more pressure as harvest time approaches. The European Union is taking steps to mitigate the effects of climate change, but there is another side to this reality — the steady growth in the cultivation of tropical crops in southern Europe, where rising temperatures have made this kind of horticulture a potential commercial opportunity. For episode 73 of Food for Europe, we travel to Sardinia, to meet two enterprising brothers, Stefano and Michele Bolliri, who have started a business growing and selling tropical fruit, which flourishes in the increasingly hot climate in the south of the island. We talk to Francesco Agus, who’s responsible for agriculture policy in the Sardinian regional administration, about his support for diversification and entrepreneurialism in the island’s farming sector at a time of climate change. And we speak to Michele Nori from the the European Commission’s directorate-general for agriculture and rural development, DG AGRI, who gives us some policy perspectives on the realities that climate change is presenting.