Groceries
Good forecasts for olive harvests in Spain and Greece
Olive oil – the liquid gold has experienced a price increase like no other food in recent years due to poor weather conditions and weak harvests. Now the prices are falling.
In Spain, the world’s largest olive oil producer, the olive harvest this season is expected to increase by 48 percent to a good 1.26 million tons compared to last year. The forecast from the Ministry of Agriculture in Madrid provides cautious optimism after the last harvest season was worse than in a long time due to the weather. After the disastrous last harvest, Greece is now also expecting an increase again – from 150,000 to 230,000 tons of oil.
While Spain and Greece give the all-clear, the crisis in Italy continues – olive oil production is likely to be even lower than last year. According to initial estimates from the Italian agricultural institute Ismea, this year’s harvest could only yield around 220,000 tons of oil – which corresponds to a decrease of 32 percent compared to last year (around 330,000 tons).
However, the positive signals from Spain and Greece seem to have already arrived in German supermarkets: at the end of October, the discounter Aldi lowered its own brand olive oil from 8.99 euros to 6.79 euros and its organic olive oil from 9.99 euros to 6.95 Euro. As a result, all major trading companies followed suit with price reductions.
dpa
Source: Stern
