Spain Regains Position of Second Largest Olive Oil Exporter to the U.S.

In the first half of 2021 olive oil exports from Spain to the U.S. increased by nearly 40 percent. Andalusian exports largely fueled the growth.

By Ephantus Mukundi
Aug. 30, 2021 13:23 UTC
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Spanish olive oil exports to the United States increased by 37.5 per­cent in the first half of 2021, accord­ing to data from the Interprofessional Association of Spanish Olive Oil.

Between January and June, olive oil ship­ments from Spain to the U.S. reached 57,402 tons. Over the same period, the U.S. imported 207,522 tons, an increase of slightly more than one per­cent com­pared with the same period last year.

We have con­tin­ued to bet on the North American con­sumer.- Pedro Barato, Interprofesional del Aceite de Oliva Español

Pedro Barato, the pres­i­dent of the Interprofessional, said that these fig­ures indi­cate that Spain is well on its way to regain­ing its lead­ing posi­tion in the U.S. olive oil mar­ket after the 25-per­cent tar­iff imposed on a vari­ety of agri­cul­tural and man­u­fac­tur­ing goods from France, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom was tem­porar­ily sus­pended in March and per­ma­nently removed in June.

See Also:Olive Oil Trade News

We have con­tin­ued to bet on the North American con­sumer,” Barato said. Now, we get our reward, to repo­si­tion our­selves as lead­ers in the coun­try that is the third-largest con­sumer of olive oils with about 400,000 tons a year.”

In the first half of 2021, Spanish olive oil imports made up about 28 per­cent of all olive oil ship­ments to the U.S., an increase of six per­cent com­pared with the same period last year.

Spain has now over­taken Tunisia as the sec­ond-largest olive oil exporter to the U.S. but still remains behind Italy.

Bottled olive oil exports to the U.S. fell by 80 per­cent in 2020 com­pared with 2019 as a result of the tar­iffs, which were imposed by the admin­is­tra­tion of for­mer President Donald J. Trump over the decades-long dis­pute between the U.S. and European Union over ille­gal sub­si­dies to air­craft man­u­fac­tur­ers Boeing and Airbus.

Producers from Andalusia, Spain’s largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing region by a sig­nif­i­cant mar­gin, are also cel­e­brat­ing an excel­lent start to 2021. According to the autonomous community’s provin­cial gov­ern­ment, olive oil exports rose by about 18 per­cent in the first six months of the year.

Due to the con­tin­ued recov­ery of olive oil prices in the region, the value of these exports reached about €1.3 bil­lion.

“[Olive oil] is a pri­mary ref­er­ence for Andalusian exports due to its high qual­ity and con­tin­ues to be the key entry point for many other Andalusian agri-food prod­ucts on the for­eign mar­ket,” said Carmen Crespo, the Andalusian min­is­ter of agri­cul­ture, live­stock, fish­eries and sus­tain­able devel­op­ment.

Daniel Dawson con­tributed to this report.



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