Prices farm products increased rapidly, and olive oil is no exception in Italy. An example is the case of the celebrity Italian extra virgin olive oil. Its price increased by 50% on average since last year.
The reasons for the increases are also not very different from what happened in Spain: When it comes to extra virgin olive oil, they are particularly prominent: severe drought and extreme heatThis resulted in last year’s meager harvest in Italy. slowdown in production (-37% compared to 2021) is entering the market in these months. With this, one year agoThe cost per liter of wholesale extra virgin olive oil is approx. 4 euros liter. Today, The prices of wholesale quotations have more than doubled, exceeding the following figures: 8 euros. Result: final cost for the consumer already around 10 euros in Italy.
Famine and speculation are also fueled by the famous Italian extra virgin olive oil
speculation And high demand The sale of the product in other countries (especially the USA, Germany and France) is of course with reasons “Status of marches” oil prices Extra virgin olive oil is starting to resemble the stock market in a significant way. speculative fluctuations The “characteristic of financial markets” was underlined recently in the special ‘Teatro Naturale’ page of analysts Alberto Grimelli and Marcello Scorcia.
structural problems
Grimelli and Scorcia also came to another conclusion. “there will be no oil for everyone. Not just them. Andrea Carrassi, managing director of the Italian Olive Oil Industry Association, had already warned about this situation in May of this year. due to low production“Our industry is at risk of not having enough oil to supply the market in the coming months,” Carrassi said.
The problem, observers say, is that only available data this year don’t say: highly likely, new production will stay insufficient (although slightly higher than last year). Moreover reserves are running out accumulated in previous years. “Guess like this prices are starting to drop only from here November 2024“If next year’s harvests are better,” Anna Cane, president of FOOI, an interprofessional organization for olive oil and table olives, concluded.
There are other indications that this product will soon become a product for only the most fed pockets. Because the truth is that in Italy decrease in production The use of extra virgin olive oil has been a phenomenon ever since. ten years agowhen production is reached 500,000 tons One year, as the Italian business newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore recently recalled. According to the Nomisma study centre, this is also due to the fact that 42% of the producing companies have less than two hectares of olive groves for their products.