Olive Oil Production in Spain Sets Record

Summary

Spain’s olive oil pro­duc­tion for the first half of the 2018/19 cam­paign reached a record 1.77 mil­lion tons, mark­ing a 43 per­cent increase from the pre­vi­ous year and 49 per­cent higher than the aver­age of the last four cam­paigns. Despite con­cerns about poten­tial tar­iffs on European Union olive oil exports to the United States, Spain has seen an 18 per­cent increase in domes­tic and inter­na­tional sales, with aver­age monthly sales reach­ing 125,550 tons for the first half of the year.

Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Food has reported that olive oil pro­duc­tion reached 1.77 mil­lion tons for the first half of the 2018/19 cam­paign — a record fig­ure.

This marks a 43 per­cent increase for the same period in 2017/18 and 49 per­cent higher than the aver­age yields of the last four cam­paigns.

The 2018/19 cam­paign has been pro­lific in Spain in other aspects as well.

Domestic and inter­na­tional sales have already reached 753,300 tons, an 18 per­cent increase from last year’s fig­ures over the same period. Average monthly sales for the first half of the 2018/19 olive cam­paign have reached about 125,550 tons.

Provisional data for March also esti­mated that 485,400 tons of olive oil have already been exported, a 24 per­cent increase over last year. March alone had a very pos­i­tive per­for­mance as exports were 50 per­cent greater than those of March 2018.

However, the poten­tial for tar­iffs on European Union olive oil exports to the United States could dampen these fig­ures mov­ing for­ward. Last year, Spain exported 35,323 tons of olive oil to the U.S. and many in the sec­tor were hop­ing to increase this mar­ket share in light of poor har­vests in other com­peti­tor coun­tries.

On the domes­tic front, Spanish olive oil pro­duc­ers increased their sales, hav­ing sold 267,960 tons, which rep­re­sents a nine per­cent increase over last year’s fig­ures and is three per­cent higher than the aver­age of the past four years.

Average monthly sales for the domes­tic mar­ket have been 44,650 tons for the first half of the year. This good per­for­mance has led to many pro­duc­ers sell­ing some of their stock, which they expect to increase by 48 per­cent com­pared with last year due to the good har­vest.

Spain is expected to make up 75 per­cent of the European Union’s olive pro­duc­tion and 50 per­cent of the global pro­duc­tion this year, com­pen­sat­ing the decreases other top olive pro­duc­ing coun­tries in the European Union expe­ri­enced.

Andalusia, Castilla La Mancha and Extremadura were the top three pro­duc­ing provinces in Spain.

Recently, the European Commission expressed its con­cern for the sig­nif­i­cant decrease of olive oil prices despite a rather sta­ble pro­duc­tion for the 2018/19 olive cam­paign. Due to this, the Commission will mon­i­tor the prices of olive oil in Spain and other mem­ber coun­tries.

Although prices in Spain are below aver­age inter­na­tional olive oil rates, they have remained rather sta­ble in the last few weeks.

Production of table olives increased by four per­cent in 2018/19 in com­par­i­son to last year’s num­bers, but have expe­ri­enced a slight decrease in sales, due mostly to lower sales in the domes­tic mar­ket.

Total sales of table olives within Spain have gone down three per­cent with respect to those of last year.

• Diario de Sevilla


• Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Food