Spanish Olive Oil Prices Fall as Production Recovers

Summary

Spain pro­duced 1.38 mil­lion met­ric tons of olive oil in the 2024/25 crop year, falling short of the 1.65 mil­lion tons fore­casted, but still a sig­nif­i­cant increase from pre­vi­ous years due to favor­able weather con­di­tions. As a result of the bumper har­vest, olive oil stocks have increased, lead­ing to a sub­stan­tial decrease in prices for both extra vir­gin and vir­gin olive oils in super­mar­kets.

According to the coun­try’s Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Spain pro­duced 1.38 mil­lion met­ric tons of olive oil in the 2024/25 crop year, with most olives har­vested and milled.

While this year’s yield will not reach the 1.65 mil­lion tons pre­dicted before the har­vest started in October, it is sig­nif­i­cantly more than the 665,800 tons pro­duced in 2022/23 and 852,600 tons the year after.

Spain was poised for a bumper har­vest after a wet win­ter and mild spring tem­per­a­tures. However, a lack of rain at the end of sum­mer and the begin­ning of autumn, extreme weather events, includ­ing hail, and labor short­ages resulted in a lower pro­duc­tion total.

The south­ern Spanish autonomous com­mu­nity of Andalusia led the way, with pro­duc­tion reach­ing nearly 981,000 tons by the end of January, shortly before the lat­est national pro­duc­tion data were pub­lished. By com­par­i­son, Andalusia pro­duced 574,295 tons in the pre­vi­ous crop year.

The most sig­nif­i­cant increases were in the province of Jaén, where pro­duc­tion more than dou­bled, ris­ing from 205,387 tons in 2023/24 to 469,562 tons by the end of January.

“We still have February and part of March, which could add a few more tons to total pro­duc­tion,” said Luis Carlos Valero, man­ager and spokesper­son for the Association of Young Farmers in Jaén (Asaja-Jaén).

Other notable increases were seen in the neigh­bor­ing provinces of Córdoba (from 150,084 to 245,205 tons) and Granada (55,314 to 105,222 tons).

Spain’s sec­ond and third-largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing regions, Castille-La Mancha and Extremadura, also expe­ri­enced sig­nif­i­cant pro­duc­tion increases.

By the end of January, farm­ers and millers in Castille-La Mancha pro­duced 130,672 tons com­pared to 108,620 tons in 2023/24.

Julián Martínez Lizán, the regional agri­cul­ture min­is­ter, told local media that he expected the har­vest to fin­ish ​“higher than the aver­age of the last decade,” at 140,000 tons.

Meanwhile, pro­duc­tion in neigh­bor­ing Extremadura rose from 68,721 tons in 2023/24 to 76,442 tons in the first four months of the crop year, which began on October 1^st.

As a result of the bumper har­vest, olive oil stocks have risen to 865,176 tons, and Spanish author­i­ties antic­i­pate that Spain will fin­ish the 2024/25 crop year in September with 295,389 tons.

By com­par­i­son, Spain fin­ished January 2024 with 733,900 tons and the 2023/24 crop year with 190,389 tons of olive oil stocks.

The return of an aver­age har­vest and recov­ery of olive oil stocks has resulted in a dra­matic decrease in prices at ori­gin with a more grad­ual decline in super­mar­ket prices.

Data from InfaOliva show that extra vir­gin olive oil prices have declined sub­stan­tially from the record-high €8.988 per kilo­gram in January 2024 to €3.933 at the time of writ­ing.

Similarly, vir­gin olive oil prices fell from €8.717 to €3.663 per kilo­gram, while lam­pante dropped from €8.563 to €3.490.

According to report­ing from Las Provincias, prices have also declined for extra vir­gin olive oils across sev­eral major super­mar­ket chains, rang­ing from a €0.20 drop for a liter to a €0.60 decline for three liters.

Victor Roig, the gen­eral man­ager of Deoleo in Spain, told Las Provincias that he expects pro­duc­tion to reach 1.4 mil­lion tons in Spain with down­ward pres­sure on prices remain­ing.

“When there is no prod­uct, it is reflected in the prices, and then there is, it is notice­able in the very sig­nif­i­cant drop that is clearly seen on the shelves, and it is the trend that will con­tinue until the next har­vest,” he said.

“The log­i­cal thing is that we go to the prices of 2021 and 2022, between €3 and €4,” Roig added. ​“The whole con­text is pos­i­tive for both the cat­e­gory and the con­sumer.”

• Economía Digital Andalucía
• Las Provincias