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Page added on February 7, 2016
Peak olive oil?
Europe’s consumers are facing 20 per cent rise in the price of olive oil after bad weather and disease devastated the continent’s olive harvest.
Olive farmers in Spain and Italy, meanwhile, have seen their leading position as exporters eroded by Tunisia.
“Shoppers spent an additional €231m in 2015 on olive oil,” said research group IRI after the retail price of the vegetable oil rose by an average of 19.8 per cent across Europe in the first 11 months of last year.
Wholesale prices of high-quality olive oil jumped last year after a bacteria outbreak in the southern part of Italy infected at least a million trees. This came as olive oil prices had already risen due to poor harvests in Spain and Italy, traditionally, the world’s top two producers.
“Italy’s harvest last year was the lowest in 25 years. It was a disaster,” said Vito Martielli, analyst at Rabobank, the Netherlands-based lender.
World olive oil production fell 26 per cent in the 2014-15 crop year, to 2.4m tonnes, after output in Spain and Italy almost halved, according to the International Olive Council.
The poor European harvests coincided with a bumper crop in Tunisia, catapulting the North African country to the top olive oil exporter spot and second-largest producer after Spain.
Tunisia sold 303,000 tonnes of olive oil to overseas markets in the 2014-15 crop year, more than five times that of the previous year, according to the IOC. Output totalled 340,000 tonnes, compared to 70,000 tonnes the year before.
The multiples of extra virgin olive oil against Brent crude, the international oil benchmark, have also jumped.
Before its precipitous slide in mid-2014, the price of crude was a fifth of that of olive oil. Although olive oil has fallen from its peak of $5,886 a tonne last August, it is now 17 times that of Brent, which is trading at $34 a barrel.
The price increase is now affecting shoppers. Anne Lefranc, director of European marketing at IRI, said the “ ‘premiumisation’ of olive oil” would turn consumers in many countries to other products.
“The price increase has impacted consumption,” she said, adding that “it is a staple product in some countries but if you go to the UK and other countries it’s more [a way of] treating yourself”.
Europe’s olive oil shock is expected to ease this year as growing conditions in Italy and Spain have improved, says Mr Martielli.
Tunisia’s harvest, on the other hand, is forecast to fall sharply due to sporadic rainfall and because olive trees cannot produce a good crop two years in a row, with the IOC predicting the country’s exports and output to more than halve.
10 Comments on "Peak olive oil?"
tahoe1780 on Sun, 7th Feb 2016 11:48 am
Not to worry. We can redefine it too. http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/04/olive-oil-real-thing
paulo1 on Sun, 7th Feb 2016 11:56 am
Anyone try and buy Pine Nuts in the last few years? I used to toast them and put them on Italian food. Those days are over.
brianr on Sun, 7th Feb 2016 12:24 pm
I buy organic California extra virgin olive oil for about $10 on sale. (750ML) Regarding pine nuts, they are normally available here in N. California in the fall, although I haven’t checked lately.
Email me and I’ll let you know when they are available. Brian
ghung on Sun, 7th Feb 2016 12:35 pm
Yeah, Brian, we buy extra California EV olive oil when our local market has their BOGO sale on it. 50% off ain’t bad. We use a good bit, so that helps. While properly stored high quality olive oil is said to have a shelf life of about 2 years, stored in the cold dark of the root cellar, it keeps quite a bit longer. We recently opened a bottle after 5 years and it was fine.
JuanP on Sun, 7th Feb 2016 2:20 pm
Paulo, I buy the bags of organic pine nuts they sell at Costco, and like them. I admit I have no idea how much they cost. We had homemade organic spinach ravioli with Pesto sauce, cheese, and pine nuts for dinner yesterday. Saved 8 Pesto portions in bags in the freezer for the next couple of months. I add more pine nuts when I serve. I eat this weekly. The basil and spinach were from our garden.
Olive trees and olive oil are becoming increasingly popular in Uruguay as an agricultural crop and product.
tahoe1780 on Sun, 7th Feb 2016 2:51 pm
Another alternative: http://superfoodprofiles.com/avocado-oil-vs-olive-oil-cooking
makati1 on Sun, 7th Feb 2016 6:46 pm
Olive oil here in the Ps:
Five liters of regular Italian Olive oil = P1,055 last month. Or USD ~22.19 at today’s exchange rate. Extra Virgin is for use on salads where you can actually taste the difference. Regular is used for cooking which is 95% of our use. Extra virgin, cold press, high quality olive oil from Italy we buy by the 500ml bottle at P224 or about $4.69 We are trying to get a few olive trees started on the farm. Maybe they will grow and produce? We shall see.
I would bet many things will disappear from store shelves as crops fail due to insects, disease and climate change. But then, consumers will disappear for the same reasons. We are not immune to Mother Nature, even if we think we are.
makati1 on Sun, 7th Feb 2016 9:14 pm
What goes up, must come down:
“International Wheat Market: Russia Set To Become Largest Exporter Of Crop, US Farmers Hurt”
http://www.ibtimes.com/international-wheat-market-russia-set-become-largest-exporter-crop-us-farmers-hurt-2297010
“The strong dollar has made it more expensive for buyers from other currency markets to buy American wheat, but the increased competition in the wheat market also has driven food prices to their lowest in seven years. Against the American dollar, Russia’s currency was at its weakest in January, driving down prices and allowing Russia to take shares of what had been well-established markets, such as Egypt.
“This season we’re selling more to distant destinations like Nigeria … and we also supplied some wheat to Mexico,” Andrey Sizov, managing director of Russian agriculture consulting firm SovEcon, told the Journal.
Low demand and low prices have hurt U.S. farmers, with forecasters predicting corn exports will hit a three-year low this year. By December, pork and beef shipments had dropped 10-15 percent in value.”
Go Speed Racer on Mon, 8th Feb 2016 6:27 am
TAKE OLIVE OIL TO REFINERY AND REFINE INTO DIESEL AND GASOLINE. Renewable, problem solved. If no olive oil left for spaghetti, eat Mexican instead.
Apneaman on Mon, 8th Feb 2016 7:17 am
Sounds like the white men of peakoil.com are far from collapse. How is it that those who have never known real daily hardship are such experts about it?
Seven Italian firms probed in olive oil scam
Seven Italian olive oil producers, including Bertolli, Sasso and Carapelli, are being investigated over allegations that the firms falsely sold olive oil products a “extra virgin”.
“They carried out tests on 20 of the most popular brands of extra virgin olive oil – the highest quality you can buy – sold across Italian supermarkets and found that the labels on nine of the bottles falsely claimed to be extra virgin.
The other four producers suspected of commercial fraud are Coricelli, Santa Sabina, Prima Donna and Antica Badia.”
http://www.thelocal.it/20151111/seven-italian-firms-probed-in-olive-oil-scam
YOUR EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OIL IS FAKE
http://www.foodrenegade.com/your-extravirgin-olive-oil-fake/