By Laura Reiley | Updated October 6, 2023 at 3:14 p.m. EDT | The Washington Post
Extreme weather decimates major producers’ yields and some countries ban exports
Extreme heat, wildfires and drought have decimated much of the world’s olive harvest yet again, driving prices for olive oil to a record high of $9,000 per metric ton.
Most home cooks aren’t buying olive oil by the ton. But retail olive oil prices in the United States have risen in recent years because of extreme weather in olive-oil-producing countries, growing 12.5 percent this year atop an 8.8 percent increase in 2022, according to Circana, a Chicago-based market research firm.
Spain, the source of half the world’s olive oil supply and the global price setter, in May reported a drop in production of 48 percent compared with last year. Concerns intensified following the release of the most recent olive oil report from the Spanish government, which showed dwindling supplies in August.
Last month, the U.S. Department of Agriculture revised its global olive oil production estimate down to 2.5 million tons, a quarter lower than both the previous year and the five-year average.
The agency said in August prices were 130 percent higher than a year ago, and climate-change-related extreme weather is making the future appear equally grim.
“Should this pace of depletion persist, market insiders warn that olive oil supplies could be exhausted before the arrival of fresh harvests, which traditionally commence in Spain around October,” Mintec analyst Kyle Holland wrote in an email.
And that’s not looking great, either.
The drought and lack of water over the past months in Spain is creating concerns about the new season, according to a recent Rabobank agriculture report. And in recent weeks, storms have affected Apulia, the most important olive oil production region in Italy, damaging the upcoming harvest. Italy is the world’s No. 2 olive oil producer. (Continue to The Washington Post for the full article)
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