Weeks of Rain and Flooding Slow Spain’s Olive Harvest, Threatening Output Targets

Persistent rain and stormy weather throughout December and January have hampered Spain’s olive harvest, damaged trees and flooded groves.

The Spanish Association of Olive Municipalities (AEMO) now estimates that the country will produce 1.2 to 1.22 million metric tons of olive oil in the 2025/26 crop year, which began in October.

AEMO forecast that cumulative production reached 720,000 tons at the end of December, about 170,000 tons lower than at the same period in the previous harvest.

The association indicated that olives falling from trees and the slowed pace of harvesting due to the inclement weather meant the country would not meet the 1.35 million-ton forecast announced late last year.

AEMO also warned that the percentage of olive oil classified as extra virgin in Spain would be lower than usual due to delays in harvesting and instances of frost in some olive groves.

“A large percentage of the oil produced will be in the virgin and lampante categories,” the association confirmed.

Jaén, the Andalusian province responsible for a plurality of the country’s olive oil production, has been especially impacted.

Heavy rains from Storm Leonardo have flooded olive groves, leaving some areas inaccessible, waterlogging fruit and preventing manual and mechanical harvests.

Producer groups estimate that at least 50,000 tons of potential olive oil production have already been lost in the province. Data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food (MAPA) show that Jaén’s olive oil yield is expected to finish 45 percent lower than last year.

Agricultural groups in the provinces of Córdoba and Seville warned that the rainy weather meant the harvest would continue later into the year than usual and anticipated that production would be lower than expected as a result.

Overall, MAPA data show that Andalusia had produced about 485,300 tons of olive oil by the end of December, indicating that the autonomous community will almost certainly fall several hundred thousand tons short of the 1.1 million ton forecast at the start of the crop year.

The constant rains and strong storms sweeping across Andalusia this winter have also caused longer-term damage across the world’s largest olive oil-producing region.

As strong winds uprooted trees and damaged branches, the region’s Plant Health Alert and Information Network warned of long-term impacts linked to flooding.

“The main problems associated with these anomalous precipitation events are: root asphyxiation, physical damage to the trees, soil erosion, difficulty in carrying out cultural work, and an increase in the incidence of diseases,” the network said.

While the wind and rain have caused plenty of damage this season, AEMO said the abundant precipitation would be beneficial for olive growers and other farmers in the medium term.

“Reservoirs are filling up, and the soil will begin spring with high moisture levels, but that’s another story,” the association said.

According to the Association of Young Farmers (Asaja), olive groves across the country have been impacted, though some less significantly than those in Andalusia.

MAPA data show that Castille-La Mancha, Spain’s second-largest producing region, has already yielded 82,740 tons of olive oil. The harvest was largely completed as the rains began, but production is expected to fall far below the roughly 130,000 tons produced last year.

Meanwhile, in the western autonomous community of Extremadura, Spain’s third-largest olive oil-producing region, farmers and millers expect a slight increase to 80,500 tons despite storms interrupting and delaying the harvest.

Producers in Catalonia, the fourth-largest producing community, came into the harvest with high expectations of 35,000 tons of production.

Ministry data show the autonomous community had produced 29,140 tons by the end of January and was widely expected to meet original estimates, significantly exceeding last year’s very poor harvest.