Spanish Olive Oil Prices Soar, Consumers Eye Moroccan Imports Amid Drought

The price of olive oil has skyrocketed in recent months, standing at more than five euros per liter for extra virgin olive oil and around five euros for virgin and lampante olive oil. Despite this price increase, Spanish consumers continue to buy olive oil because they have no other alternative, as sunflower oil has also become more expensive after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, reports EFE.

Production forecasts for this 2022-2023 season are around 780,000 tons, half of the previous season, which will result in low product availability and "a compression of demand," explains Rafael Sánchez de Puerta, president of the agri-food cooperatives. To adjust supply and demand, prices must be reviewed, he believes, specifying that the price increase will not benefit many farmers who "will not have a harvest or a very small harvest".

Sánchez de Puerta also expects a sharp drop in exports due to this price increase, despite efforts to expand the market. "If last year an average of about 138,000 tons were put on the market, this year we will barely be able to maintain about 100,000 tons," he explains, hoping that the recent autumn rains will improve water reserves to reduce the damage caused by drought to olive growers.

"With these recent rains, we eliminate the risk that weighed on the 2023 harvest, but everything depends on the volume of the harvest, the prices at origin and how the market evolves," explains Primitivo Fernández, the director of the National Association of Industrial Packers and Refiners of Edible Oils (ANIERAC), who is nevertheless concerned about the evolution of energy, raw material and fuel prices, which are affecting the olive oil sector.