Renewed concerns of extra virgin olive oil shortages in Spain

Spain’s leading agricultural union has predicted that olive oil shortages may occur in the world’s largest-producing country in the second half of the 2023/24 crop year, which ends in September. Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias said the latest data published by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food indicate that the 560,000 tons of olive oil supply to the market will be insufficient to cover domestic demand and exports until the next harvest. The union cited consecutive years of poor harvests – Spain produced 846,800 tons in 2023/24 and 665,800 tons in 2022/23 compared to the average of 1.4 million tons from the previous five crop years – combined with low yields elsewhere in the Mediterranean basin and the continued prohibitions on bulk exports from Turkey and Morocco for the current situation. Cooperativas Agro-Alimentarias estimates that monthly consumption and exports cannot exceed 90,000 tons if the current stock lasts until the next crop year. In the last five months ...