European officials see olive oil supplanting butter, vegetable oil consumption

Producers will benefit from a steady increase in consumer awareness about olive oil’s health benefits coupled with the growing popularity of the Mediterranean diet in the next 10 years, European Union officials predict. In the bloc’s 2022 – 2032 medium-term outlook, the E.U. agriculture and rural development department also analyzed how the growth of the olive oil market would impact competing vegetable oil markets. “Olive oil is expected to increasingly replace vegetable oils in food consumption particularly outside the main producing countries, driven by a healthy image of olive oil, and an increasing popularity of the various Mediterranean cuisines,” officials wrote in the outlook. “This trend is expected to contribute to the decline in demand for vegetable oils and to affect butter consumption, especially in home cooking and food services,” they added. Officials predict that the growing demand for olive oil will also continue to foster the expansion of olive growing in the ...