Doha – Al Sharq website
According to official estimates issued by the European Commission, olive oil production in Spain, the largest producing country in the world, may drop by half this year compared to last year due to drought, which will lead to an increase in prices, according to Reuters.
Spain usually provides about 40 percent of global production. However, the heat waves that occurred around the time of the olive trees’ flowering last spring and the severe drought since last summer in Spain, Italy and Portugal, the world’s second and fourth producers, have reduced stocks.
Greece, the third largest producer in the European Union, which was not affected by these weather conditions, is expected to improve its production, although not enough to compensate for the decline in Spanish production. said Primitivo Fernandez, president of the Spanish National Association of Edible Oil Packers "It’s a disaster"And highlighted the simultaneous drought, economic crisis and war in Ukraine.
The Association of Spanish Olive Oil Exporters (Asoliva) estimates there will be a drop of at least 10 percent in olive oil available globally this year from the 3.1 million tonnes produced in the season ending in 2021.
Spain’s largest olive oil group (Dcope) told Reuters "Every day that goes by without rain brings a worse forecast".
