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A new report by the European Parliamentary Research Service pro­vides a com­pre­hen­sive overview of the European Union’s olive and olive oil sec­tor as well as the cur­rent chal­lenges it faces and future prospects.

The European Union is the world’s largest olive oil pro­ducer, with 70 to 75 per­cent of the world’s olive oil sup­ply orig­i­nat­ing in nine coun­tries: Spain, Italy, Greece, Portugal, France, Croatia, Slovenia, Cyprus and Malta. According to the report, plan­ta­tions in the EU’s olive-grow­ing regions cover a total area of 5 mil­lion hectares with a pro­duc­tion value of over €7 bil­lion.

The report shares a few inter­est­ing facts and fig­ures about olive oil pro­duc­tion in the EU:

• More than half of the EU’s 5 mil­lion hectares of olive plan­ta­tions are found in Spain.
• Greece is the only EU coun­try where more than 10 per­cent of olive groves are reserved for table olives.
• The largest olive farms are in Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal.
• Spain has the largest olive plan­ta­tions aver­ag­ing 5.8 hectares in size, fol­lowed by Portugal at 2.8 hectares. In other coun­tries, the aver­age plan­ta­tion size is 2 hectares.
• 35 per­cent of Spain’s farm work­ers work on olive plan­ta­tions.
• Most olive farms are small and fam­ily-run, with less than 1 per­cent of work­ers being non-fam­ily mem­bers. In Spain, this per­cent­age is 17 per­cent.
• Olive and olive oil pro­duc­tion made up over 15 per­cent of agri­cul­tural out­put in Greece and Spain in 2016.
• Yields aver­age between 2,000 and 2,500 tons per hectare. Spain and Italy tend to expe­ri­ence higher yields but trends indi­cate that these are increas­ing in Spain and Portugal while declin­ing in Italy and other coun­tries.
• In 2016, 74 per­cent of the EU’s olive oil was pro­duced in Spain while a fur­ther 22 per­cent was divided almost equally between Greece and Italy.
• The price of table olives has been steadily increas­ing and ranges from less than €60 per 100 kg in Portugal and Malta to more than €200 in Greece in 2016.
• The price of extra vir­gin olive oil ranges from more than €300 per 100 liters in Spain, Greece and Portugal, to more than €500 in Italy in 2015. Prices in Croatia and Slovenia are up to 100 per­cent more expen­sive.
• Most EU exports of olive oil are headed for the USA, Japan, China, Canada, Brazil and Australia.
• Most imports come from Tunisia, Morocco and Syria and are headed to Spain and Italy.
• Italy is the high­est importer of olive oil within the EU, with most imports com­ing from Spain.

The report also out­lines a few of the main chal­lenges faced by the EU’s olive sec­tor. It notes that while pro­duc­tion processes remain largely tra­di­tional, in Spain and Portugal there’s a trend towards increas­ing the size of plan­ta­tions and intro­duc­ing mech­a­niza­tion. A Spanish research study con­cluded that this approach is not a ​“one-size fits all solu­tion” and sug­gests that plan­ta­tions could increase prof­its and avoid mar­ket volatil­ity by focus­ing on inno­v­a­tive har­vest­ing solu­tions, new cul­ti­vars, and pest man­age­ment.

Market fluc­tu­a­tions due to the unpre­dictabil­ity of yields, extreme weather and dis­ease were some of the biggest chal­lenges faced by coun­tries in the EU’s olive-grow­ing region in recent years. An attempt is being made to address these issues through the risk-man­age­ment instru­ments avail­able to farm­ers under the EU’s Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), while other ini­tia­tives aim to tackle food fraud and dis­putes on the appli­ca­tion of com­mer­cial rules, and strengthen com­pet­i­tiv­ity.

Looking to the future, the report fore­casts that EU pro­duc­tion is set to rise, espe­cially in Spain where it is pro­jected to increase by 10 per­cent by 2026, while Italy is expected to see a decline of one per­cent. Meanwhile, in terms of inter­na­tional trade, exports are pre­dicted to rise over 45 per­cent by 2026.

In order to reach these goals, financ­ing is being ded­i­cated to research into improv­ing sev­eral aspects of the pro­duc­tion chain, includ­ing sus­tain­abil­ity and pest con­trol, pre­vent­ing fraud, and the recy­cling of waste.

The full report is avail­able here.