Spain Takes Aim at N. America's Rising Demand Despite Trump Win

Summary

Despite con­cerns about the eco­nomic cli­mate fol­low­ing Donald Trump’s elec­tion, the Spanish olive oil sec­tor remains opti­mistic about expand­ing into the North American mar­ket, par­tic­u­larly in the United States and Canada. Spanish exporters have seen sig­nif­i­cant growth in both coun­tries, with a focus on pro­mot­ing extra vir­gin olive oil and increas­ing mar­ket share through strate­gic mar­ket­ing cam­paigns, even in the face of poten­tial pro­tec­tion­ist poli­cies from the incom­ing U.S. admin­is­tra­tion.

The Spanish olive oil sec­tor is deter­mined to con­quer the North American mar­ket and new busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties despite the anx­ious eco­nomic cli­mate cast by the elec­tion of Donald Trump.

The bil­lion­aire became the President-elect by win­ning the November 8 elec­tion in spite of the fore­casts by polit­i­cal observers. The news of his elec­tion was mainly met with shock and stu­por world­wide.

Politicians, busi­ness enti­ties, and lay­men alike have been con­cerned with Trump’s harsh pro­tec­tion­ist stance. In fact, the soon-to-be American pres­i­dent whose view on eco­nomic pol­icy is summed up by the slo­gan: ​‘America first.’ He has defined him­self as a ​‘neo-iso­la­tion­ist’ strongly opposed to lib­eral, ortho­dox eco­nom­ics poli­cies and agree­ments.

Trump’s pro­tec­tive approach to eco­nom­ics polic­ing might not impact Spanish exports of olive oil as much as it might impact other coun­tries. Indeed, Trump’s biggest foes in terms of eco­nomic com­pe­ti­tion are China and Mexico; he has stated that he would increase cus­toms duty for these two nations to dis­rupt what he sees as a trade imbal­ance that has cost American jobs.

Spain will likely not suf­fer as much from the rise in cus­toms duties and, as an eco­nom­ics expert pointed out: ​“Donald Trump can kill some com­mer­cial agree­ments. He can’t kill glob­al­iza­tion.”

Spanish olive oil grow­ers have remained opti­mistic about busi­ness oppor­tu­ni­ties in North America, where the demand for Spanish olive oil has been steadily increas­ing in the past few years.

And in Canada, imports of Spanish olive oil have seen a 44 per­cent increase between 2011 and 2015, accord­ing to an ICEX España Exportación e Inversiones study. Canada imports the entirety of its olive oil con­sump­tion.

Canada’s biggest olive oil-con­sum­ing province is Québec — a mul­ti­cul­tural hot spot where res­i­dents have known about the health ben­e­fits of olive oil for a long time and use it exten­sively. The study also stated that the biggest oppor­tu­ni­ties for Spanish exporters are found in the pro­duc­tion of extra vir­gin olive oil.

But Spanish exporters have seen even greater promise in the United States, where their busi­ness has grown a whop­ping 145 per­cent between 2011 and 2015. According to Pedro J. Dominguez, unit busi­ness direc­tor at Nielsen, Spain is already the largest olive oil sup­plier to the States.

As a result, Spanish olive oil pro­duc­ers and indus­try lead­ers have made tena­cious efforts toward pro­mo­tional mar­ket­ing cam­paigns in order to boost mar­ket share in the U.S.

Tennis super­star Rafael Nadal has served as Spain’s olive oil ambas­sador since 2015. Enrique Delgado, the gen­eral sec­re­tary of Infaoliva, con­firmed that the Spanish indus­try is strongly pro­mot­ing olive oil towards the US mar­ket and will con­tinue to do so, who­ever sits in the Oval Office.

• Mercacei


• Interempresas.net


• Courrier International