Olive oil is “Critically low”

Last week, the price of Spanish olive oil has surged at a 5 percent increase to $4272 a metric ton, the highest since April 2006. A bacterial disease xylem fastidious and fruit-fly infestations have contributed to a 50 percent decline in Spanish and Italian olive oil. Spain and Italy account for 70 percent of the world’s olive oil and because of disease, extreme dry, hot weather and infestations olive oil is at “critically low levels.” “It’s quite a concerning acceleration in the price of olive oil. The supply shortages as a result of the drought, and particularly underproduction in Spain, have filtered though to the marketplace” says Lamine Lahousnia, head of packaged-food research at Euromonitor International in London. According to research on Euromonitor, consumer prices for olive oil increased about 10 percent on average in the past year, which is faster than overall inflation for packaged foods at about 3.7 percent.

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