Olive oil price soars 37% in Brazil in 2023

The price of olive oil has been frightening Brazilians. On market shelves, it has been common to find bottles being sold for R$40 or R$50. And there is no expectation that product inflation will stop anytime soon. From January until the 14th of this month, the price of olive oil soared 37.76%, according to the December inflation preview, which is measured by the Broad Consumer Price Index-15 (IPCA-15). The data was released this Thursday (28) by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE). The explanation for the strong increase, however, is far from Brazil. This is because the main olive oil producers are in Europe, where a severe drought reduced the harvest and put pressure on supply on the international market. But the War in Ukraine also influenced this account by putting pressure on production costs associated with agricultural production, including olive trees, explains Felippe Serigati, researcher at FGV-Agro. Brazil is impacted by this scenario because it is ...