Agricultural Incomes Rise in Andalusia, Boosted by Resurgent Olive Oil Sector

Income from the agri­cul­tural sec­tor in the south­ern Spanish autonomous com­mu­nity of Andalusia has exceeded €10 bil­lion for the first time, accord­ing to a report from local author­i­ties.

Andalusian farm­ers, ranch­ers and fish­ers com­bined to earn €10.4 bil­lion – equiv­a­lent to 35 per­cent of all agri­cul­tural income earned in Spain – after expe­ri­enc­ing a 10.7 per­cent increase in income in 2021.

The olive oil sec­tor was one of the dri­ving forces behind this increase. The total value of olive oil pro­duc­tion in Andalusia – the world’s largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing region by a sig­nif­i­cant mar­gin – increased by 77 per­cent in 2021.

Officials at the provin­cial Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Sustainable Development attrib­uted the increas­ing pro­duc­tion value to a good har­vest in the 2021/22 crop year in which Andalusia pro­duced 1.15 mil­lion tons of olive oil and ris­ing prices.

According to data from the International Olive Council and Poolred, prices for refined olive oil, vir­gin olive oil and extra vir­gin olive oil sig­nif­i­cantly increased in the past year in Jaén, Spain’s bench­mark olive oil mar­ket.

Refined olive oil prices increased from €296.50 per 100 kilo­grams in July 2021 to €339.60 in July 2022, vir­gin olive oil prices rose from €307.50 to €348.80 and extra vir­gin olive oil prices increased from €331.50 to €352.60.

Despite the sig­nif­i­cant increase, act­ing min­is­ter Carmen Crespo said agri­cul­tural income would have increased even more if not for the detri­men­tal impacts of infla­tion and the ris­ing costs of fuel, elec­tric­ity, fer­til­izer and ani­mal feed.

“The agri­cul­tural income of Andalusia could have been even higher if it were not for the exor­bi­tant rise in pro­duc­tion costs and the pas­siv­ity of the gov­ern­ment when it comes to tak­ing effec­tive mea­sures to cush­ion infla­tion,” she said. ​“Farmers and ranch­ers need the sup­port of all admin­is­tra­tions.”

The report also indi­cated that ris­ing income in the agri­cul­tural sec­tor was accom­pa­nied by a grow­ing num­ber of jobs in the sec­tor.

“These data, which reflect growth in the agri­cul­tural sec­tor in Andalusia, mean that the wealth and employ­ment gen­er­ated by the coun­try­side are essen­tial for the social and eco­nomic devel­op­ment of rural areas, help­ing to estab­lish the pop­u­la­tion and, there­fore, to avoid depop­u­la­tion,” Crespo said.

However, the regional act­ing min­is­ter warned that Andalusian agri­cul­ture ​“is not being taken into account in the new Common Agricultural Policy, despite grow­ing by almost five points in just one year.”

“The strate­gic plan pre­sented by the Ministry of Agriculture harms the Andalusian coun­try­side with losses that will exceed €500 mil­lion if the gov­ern­ment of [President Pedro] Sánchez does not address Andalusia’s con­cerns,” Crespo added.

Supporters of the country’s strate­gic plan to imple­ment the CAP argue that more farm­ers across Spain ben­e­fit from the recon­fig­ured for­mula to deter­mine direct pay­ments. However, Andalusia is one of the few regions that does not.

• Junta de Andalucía