Spain's Minister of Agriculture Calls on Olive Oil Sector to Keep Prices Affordable

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Spain’s min­is­ter of agri­cul­ture, fish­eries and food has asked all the stake­hold­ers of the nation’s olive oil pro­duc­tion chain to stay united and coop­er­ate in times of sig­nif­i­cant olive oil price insta­bil­ity.

Luis Planas said olive oil prices had increased 45 per­cent in the last year, which he warned could trans­late into a reduced appeal of the prod­uct among fam­i­lies.

He added that a ​“gourmet” prod­uct avail­able only to cer­tain con­sumers would do no good for the olive oil sec­tor. In the cur­rent envi­ron­ment, he said, the indus­try should act to ​“avoid price spikes.”

Among the dri­vers of the ongo­ing olive oil price rise is the excep­tion­ally low har­vest expected across all of Spain, the world’s largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing coun­try.

Additionally, infla­tion and con­tin­ued uncer­tainty in the global oilseed mar­kets have resulted in an unprece­dented mar­ket sit­u­a­tion for olive oil.

“We are liv­ing in a moment that is com­pletely unprece­dented. Olive oil has never had such a high price,” Juan Vilar, a strate­gic con­sul­tant, told Olive Oil Times in an October 2022 inter­view.

The lat­est offi­cial esti­mates from both the national and Andalusian gov­ern­ments cal­cu­late that olive oil pro­duc­tion will reach some­where between 700,000 and 800,000 tons. Meanwhile, national olive oil stocks slightly exceed 400,000 tons.

Given these vol­umes, Planas reas­sured Spanish con­sumers, con­firm­ing that there would be enough olive oil for inter­nal con­sump­tion and exports.

International Olive Council fig­ures show that olive oil con­sump­tion in Spain reached approx­i­mately 510,000 tons in the 2021/22 crop year.

At a meet­ing for the pre­sen­ta­tion of a sci­ence-based book on olive oil and health pro­moted by the Foundation Patrimonio Comunal Olivarero and by the Spanish Interprofessional Olive Oil Organization, Planas also noted that he looks ​“with opti­mism at the future of the sec­tor, both for the prod­uct and for who is behind it.”

“I think it is cru­cial that all parts of the olive oil sec­tor… are united to ensure they get the most out of this prod­uct,” he added.

Several olive oil indus­try lead­ers have repeat­edly expressed sim­i­lar wor­ries in recent days.

Adoración Blanque, the pres­i­dent of the Almería chap­ter of the Association of Young Farmers and Ranchers (Asaja Almería), said the moti­va­tion for the price increase ​“is partly due to the exces­sive reduc­tion of the har­vest in the rest of Andalusia.”

“However, we must empha­size that if the price at ori­gin is very high, it is high for the con­sumer as well, so con­sump­tion could be affected,” she added.

Producers in Spain and other rel­e­vant mar­kets, such as Italy, also lament the higher pro­duc­tion costs, includ­ing for elec­tric­ity, fuel, fer­til­izer, pes­ti­cide, pack­ag­ing, labels, logis­tics and mar­ket­ing.

However, Planas remained opti­mistic in his speech and empha­sized the need to edu­cate con­sumers about olive oil.

He con­cluded that there was still remark­able poten­tial to grow the sec­tor, as olive oil accounts for just 3 per­cent of edi­ble fats con­sumed glob­ally.

• El Diario
• Food Retail
• Asaja Almería