`Increase in Virgin Olive Oil Consumption in Spain - Olive Oil Times

Increase in Virgin Olive Oil Consumption in Spain

By Julie Butler
Apr. 28, 2014 09:41 UTC

Consumption of sun­flower oil rose 9.7 per­cent last year while that of olive oil fell nearly 1 per­cent, but olive oil remains by far the most used edi­ble oil in Spanish house­holds, accord­ing to the lat­est Spanish food con­sump­tion data.

The Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment (MAGRAMA) fig­ures also show that while con­sump­tion of refined olive oil in Spanish homes decreased 6.8 per­cent on 2012, the vir­gin olive oil cat­e­gory man­aged to grow 12.1 per­cent.

Each per­son con­sumes 9.31 liters of olive oil annu­ally at home

Overall, each per­son in Spain con­sumed an aver­age of 13.56 liters of edi­ble oil in 2013 (up from 12.8 in 2012), of which 5.22 liters was refined olive oil (mar­keted as olive oil”) and 4.09 liters was vir­gin olive oil. That makes a per capita total of 9.31 liters for olive oil over­all and adds up to nearly 423 mil­lion liters, down 0.8 per­cent on 2012, while the next most con­sumed oil, sun­flower oil, aver­aged 3.72 liters per per­son and totaled about 169 mil­lion liters.

Refined olive oil accounted for 38.5 per­cent of the total vol­ume of oil con­sumed in Spanish homes last year and 44.2 per­cent of value, while the respec­tive fig­ures were 30.2 and 38.9 per­cent for vir­gin olive oil and 27.4 and 14.4 per­cent for sun­flower oil.

The vast major­ity – 92.1 per­cent – of edi­ble oil for house­hold con­sump­tion was bought in hyper­mar­kets, super­mar­kets and dis­count stores.

Profile of con­sumers

In a press release, MAGRAMA said its study of edi­ble oil con­sump­tion also showed that the house­holds with the high­est con­sump­tion of refined olive oil were those in Galicia, the Canary Islands, and Asturias, and com­prised of cou­ples with chil­dren aged above 17 or with­out chil­dren, and retirees.

Consumption of vir­gin olive oil was high­est in cities of more than 100,000 inhab­i­tants in the regions of Andalusia, Madrid, Cantabria and the Basque Country and also among house­holds formed by cou­ples with older chil­dren or with­out chil­dren, and retirees.

Sunflower oil was most pop­u­lar in towns with less than 10,000 inhab­i­tants in Galicia, Castile and León, and Cantabria, and among house­holds com­prised of cou­ples with chil­dren aged from about seven and above.


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