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The European Commission released an update of the cur­rent whole­sale prices of olive oil in the major mar­kets of Spain, Italy and Greece reveal­ing rates gen­er­ally lower than the same period of last year. Among the three, Italy boasts the high­est prices in both extra vir­gin and vir­gin olive oil.

Starting off with Spain, extra vir­gin olive oil is sell­ing for €3.16 ($3.89) per kilo in Jaén, the low­est price among the mon­i­tored areas, decreased by 17.9 per­cent com­pared to the same period of 2017, when the one-kilo cost was €3.86 ($4.51). Price fluc­tu­a­tions are found in dif­fer­ent areas of the coun­try, with the high­est per kilo price in Sevilla with €3.40 ($4.19). The aver­age price of extra vir­gin in Spain is €3.23 ($3.98) per kilo.

Virgin olive oil costs €3.00 ($3.69) per kilo in Jaén, down by 20.1 per­cent from last year when one kilo was sell­ing for €3.75 ($4.62). Toledo leads the price range with €3.18 ($3.92), while Badajoz is the cheap­est with €2.80 ($3.45) per kilo. The aver­age price of vir­gin olive oil in Spain is €2.98 ($3.67) per kilo.

Lampante olive oil is sell­ing for €2.80 ($3.45) per kilo in Jaén, com­pared to €3.69 ($4.54) a year ago. The high­est price is found in Málaga with €3.00 ($3.69) and the low­est in Tarragona with €2.53 ($3.11) per kilo. The aver­age price in the coun­try for a kilo of lam­pante is €2.81 ($3.46).

In Italy, extra vir­gin olive oil costs €4.08 ($5.03) per kilo in Bari, reduced by a sig­nif­i­cant 33.6 per­cent com­pared to €6.14 ($7.56) dur­ing the same period of 2017. Extra vir­gin from Palermo is the most expen­sive at €4.85 ($5.98), while the cheap­est is found in Catanzaro and Cosenza with €3.80 ($4.68) for one kilo. The aver­age sell­ing price of Italian extra vir­gin is €4.15 ($5.11) per kilo.

Virgin olive oil in Italy presents a uni­for­mity in price with €3.35 ($4.13) per kilo in Brindisi, Lecce, and Taranto. The aver­age sell­ing price of vir­gin oil in the coun­try is €3.19 ($3.93) per kilo.

Lampante olive oil marks the high­est price in Catanzaro with €2.73 ($3.36), while the cheap­est lam­pante oil is found in Gioia Tauro with €2.50 ($3.08). The aver­age price of one kilo of lam­pante oil in Italy is €2.57 ($3.16).

In Greece, extra vir­gin olive oil is sell­ing for €3.08 ($3.79) per kilo in Chania, down 13.5 per­cent from last year when the price topped at €3.56 ($4.38). The high­est price is found in Lakonia region with €3.37 ($4.15) and the low­est in Heraklion with €3.03 ($3,73), while the aver­age sell­ing price of extra vir­gin is €3.16 ($3.89) per kilo.

Virgin olive oil costs €2.95 ($3.63) per kilo in Chania, down by 13.2 per­cent from the same period last year when it cost €3.40 ($4.19). The low­est price is recorded in Heraklion with €2.92 ($3.60), with the aver­age price rang­ing at €2.94 ($3.62) per kilo of vir­gin olive oil.

As of lam­pante olive oil, one kilo costs €2.65 ($3.26) in Chania, com­pared to €2.90 ($3.57) last sea­son.

As far as Greece is con­cerned, the lat­est feed­back from the press describes a mar­ket that is stag­nant. There is a sur­plus of olive oil stored by pro­duc­ers, but there is also lim­ited demand from whole­sale buy­ers.

According to some reports, Italy, the biggest buyer of Greek olive oil, has already bought tax-free olive oil from Tunisia to cover its needs. The reduced inter­est from buy­ers is reflected in the price of extra vir­gin olive oil, which peaked at €3.85 ($4.74) per kilo in January but then started to decline to set­tle at around €3.16 ($3.89) for the time being.

Olive Oil Times asked the Agricultural Association of Chania in Crete to share his view on the mar­ket. Their spokesper­son, Nektarios Parashakis, said: ​“There is no seri­ous demand for olive oil now in Greece. There is a rumor that Spain will have a 10 per­cent big­ger yield in the 2018/19 sea­son and big play­ers in Italy and else­where are reluc­tant to buy now wait­ing for cheaper Spanish oil. Nevertheless, I believe that the demand for Greek extra vir­gin will increase by this sum­mer espe­cially from Italian bot­tlers.”

• European Commission, cur­rent olive oil prices


• SEDIK, ​“Inactivity and price decline in the olive oil mar­ket”