Spanish Olive Oil Exports Soar During Weak Harvest

Summary

Spain’s olive oil exports have surged by fifty-three per­cent com­pared to last year, with 72,000 tons exported in November alone. Despite a global drop in olive oil pro­duc­tion, Spain’s suc­cess is attrib­uted to grow­ing global demand and high prices, par­tic­u­larly in the province of Jaén.

Spain is cur­rently expe­ri­enc­ing a for­mi­da­ble olive oil com­mer­cial­iza­tion cam­paign as exports have increased a whop­ping fifty-three per­cent com­pared with the lev­els of last year.

The Olive and Olive Oil Sectorial Table, dur­ing a meet­ing in the Department of Agriculture and Fishing, has announced that the com­mer­cial­iza­tion cam­paign that started on October 31 has been a tremen­dous suc­cess thus far.
See Also:Complete Coverage of the 2016 Olive Harvest
In October, Spain pro­duced 9,000 tons of olive oil despite the fact that the har­vest had to be done rel­a­tively late because of the fruit’s late mat­u­ra­tion. 72,000 tons of Spanish olive oil have been exported, and that only accounts for the month of November.

The news of flour­ish­ing Spanish exports comes dur­ing tough times for the olive oil indus­try. Indeed, the global pro­duc­tion of olive oil has seen a sig­nif­i­cant drop in 2016. The International Olive Council first fore­casted that world­wide yield would decrease by six per­cent but later revised it to four­teen per­cent.

Many of the world’s largest olive oil pro­duc­ers are expe­ri­enced steep chal­lenges.

In France, drought has severely impacted the har­vest. In Italy, pests and harsh weather con­di­tions have taken a toll on the olive trees.

In Spain, inac­cu­rate yield fore­casts have cast great anx­i­ety over the olive oil sec­tor, with local indus­try lead­ers fear­ing that the lower-than-expected pro­duc­tion lev­els would not be enough to meet the ever-expand­ing demand.

Overall, European coun­tries have had a tough year in terms of pro­duc­tion results. And yet, Spanish olive oil exports are reach­ing stel­lar lev­els.

If we account for both domes­tic and inter­na­tional com­mer­cial­iza­tion, Spain has thus far sold 105,800 tons of olive oil, an increase of thirty-five per­cent com­pared with last year’s cam­paign.

The rea­son as to why Spanish expor­ta­tions are doing so well is that the global demand is still grow­ing by the day. There might be less olive oil avail­able, but the oil that did get pro­duced is find­ing buy­ers very eas­ily.

Prices are at high lev­els and con­sumers who priv­i­lege olive oil as an essen­tial kitchen sta­ple seem to be will­ing to pay more to get their hands on it.

Moreover, the world-renowned Spanish province of Jaén has been one of the few that did not get severely impacted by drops in pro­duc­tion.

As a result, Jaén is hav­ing lit­tle to no trou­ble sell­ing its golden liq­uid, at high prices. It is obvi­ous that the suc­cess that Jaén man­aged to main­tain in terms of pro­duc­tion and expor­ta­tion is con­tribut­ing greatly to the country’s inter­na­tional suc­cess.

• agroinformacion.com


• Mercacei