Two weeks. Two weeks of consecutive falls in the price of olive oil in origin have enough to put the entire sector on red alert. But … why? Wasn’t high prices They were also suffocating To the industry causing millionaire losses? What are low is also a problem?
Let’s go in parts … how much has the price of oil dropped? As reported Agroinformationas of January 31, the average price in extra virgin olive oil was 4,275 euros/ton, in the virgin oil of 3,701 euros/ton and in the lampante of 3,452 euros/ton.
That represents a fall of 3.20%, 6.80% and 2.80% respectively compared to last week and a 50.55% drop, 52.55% and 56.55% compared to the year past.
And why is this a problem? Because, as we explained a few weeks ago, the historical limit of profitability for the traditional dry land olive tree is around four euros. If the low price of that figure, the farmers (dry) will not be able to cover the fixed costs.
And this would not be a problem if it were not because more than two thirds of the Spanish olive grove is dry (1.913,531 hectares in front of 874,553 of irrigation).
From a crisis to the opposite. It is curious because, in recent years, the situation has been the opposite: but the result is the same. The Olivareros de dryo did not have enough olive to compensate for fixed expenses – although the price was in the clouds.
In addition, the distributors could not impact all the rise in the final prices (deoleo, the largest oil company in the world, owner of brands such as hojiblanca or carbonell, It was left 34.3 million euros in 2023).
Isn’t it a bit weird? The truth is that no. In recent years, we have seen exactly the same problem with lemons, The almonds or bananas. The olive grove has been relatively protected because it is a product with a limited international competition: what was not protected is of climate change.
In fact, those who have been (those of irrigation who have not suffered cuts) have not had this problem. The irrigation has been the great beneficiary (or the least harmed) of these successive crises: they had more olives when prices were expensive and have less costs now than prices are low.
Can the olive grove be saved? That is the big question. If the industry continues to hook financially complicated years, the problems can be increasing. Therefore, the Olivar tendency has been to “go” to irrigated (OA ultra -intense models).
There is no water for everyone. “The difficult thing is to have water because the Guadalquivir basin is already deficient, so there are no new concessions,” explained in DAP Diego BarrancoProfessor at the University of Córdoba.
These concessions do have “historical plots of other crops that were always irrigated or the olive groves that emerged” directly as “irrigation”. However, transforming 1,901,529 hectares of olive grove before it is late seems one of the most important agricultural challenges of the century. And it is not clear that we can do it.
Image | Kostas Morfiris | Visual Karsa
In Xataka | Spain faces the problem contrary to a year ago: an olive oil so cheap that it is no longer profitable for farmers
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