Olive oil prices

Spanish officials are raising the alarm about the rising prices of olive oil in retail. Rain in Andalusia could give a glimmer of hope for the upcoming harvest.

Prices for Extra Virgin have reached a new record high of €8,300 per kilogram, which is 115% higher than at the same time last year. According to local media and various officials, such prices from producers have led to the fact that olive oil on supermarket shelves is sold at a price of € 10 per liter or more. Olive oil is becoming more expensive fundamentally, because there is and will be very little of it, and it is scarce.

Whether it rains in the country's olive groves before the end of November or not will affect how high prices will be. Analysts expect prices to continue to rise over the next year.

As a result of the decline in production, sales in the domestic market decreased. According to the National Association of Edible Oil Producers (Anierac), sales of olive oil decreased by 20% in the first half of 2023, reaching almost 126 million liters. In total, 307 million liters of oil were delivered to the market, which is about 9% less than in the first half of 2022. Since the beginning of the current harvest year, Anierac members have already released 15% less olive oil to the market, about 200 million liters. A noticeable difference.

However, experts believe that the demand for olive oil remains the same, and many consumers decide to use less olive oil instead of completely switching to another vegetable oil. Spanish manufacturers are looking for new markets. Currently, India is the fourth Asian market for Spanish olive oil. In the first quarter of 2023, India's olive oil imports from the Spanish region of Andalusia alone amounted to 9.9 million euros, which is 31% more than in the same period last year.

In any case, olive is a crop with variable yields and dependent on rains, so nothing supernatural is happening yet.