Consumption olive oil The downward trend has been observed for several months in parallel with an uncontrollable rise in prices. Latest data from Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food for food consumption confirm a fall of 9.6% over the last twelve months in the olive oil category, while sunflower in houses it increases by 8.7%.

The report confirms that the olive sector as a whole has declined by 5.1% over the past twelve months. However, the overall increase in prices means that in value terms the increase will be 17.8%. The average price per liter closed at €4.21/litre, representing an increase of 24.1% in the rolling year to August.

The 9.6% drop is overall, but extra virgin olive oil purchases show a 10.9% drop and extra virgin olive oil purchases show a 9.4% drop. Extra virgin olive oil is falling slower, by 3.6%, although it is for this category that the average price has increased the most, by 34.7%.

Despite this, “the difference in average price between different types of oil in the context price escalation “may have contributed to these movements,” the report specifies. It also notes that this forecast “was positive for sunflower oil purchases, which managed to grow by 8.7%, possibly due to the price factor and being below average prices.” this is an increase in purchases.

It was on this Wednesday that Facua-Consumers in Action reported National Commission for Markets and Competition (CNMC) to eight supermarket chains to launch an investigation into whether there might have been an agreement between the major chains to set prices for olive oil.

The consumer organization found that prices for one-liter bottles of the white brand in the extra virgin category rose 9% in November, after three months of the same prices or with a difference of less than one cent.

Faqua condemns the fact that the increase does not respond to rising prices at source and points to a “parallel pricing strategy.” Last weekly newsletter consulted Independent (Week 43, October 23 to 29, 2023) reflects that Prices for all categories of olive oil are lower than five weeks ago.. In particular, Extra Virgin is 2.72% cheaper; virgin – 6.67%; olive – 6.02%; and refined – 0.90% lower.

Compared to the previous week, EVOO fell 0.88%; virgin -1.12%; olive 2.30%; and processing remains the same. Overall, the squeeze-free average fell 1.06% from last week. However, this is an increase of 67.3% compared to the same week of the previous campaign; 144.9% higher than the average for the previous two campaigns; and this figure increased by 156.9% compared to the average of the last four campaigns.

Pomace oil increases

Study of the department he currently heads Luis Planas also indicates a significant increase in demand for oil refuse“possibly due to the persistence of the average price below the market price, despite its sharp increase over this period.”

Regarding forms of consumption, the statistics reflect “unfavorable dynamics for both 1-liter containers and 5-liter bottles, with a decrease of 5.0% and 6.0%, respectively.”

Overall, packaging industry statistics show that in total for the campaign ending in September, olive oil
A total of 268.53 million liters left the factories, which is 12.96% lower than last year (308.52 million liters in the 2021/2022 campaign).

According to the Anierac employers’ association, the quantity of extra virgin olive oil put on the market reaches 113 million liters, a decrease of 12.62% compared to the previous campaign. “Soft” and “intensive” oil also showed a decrease of 16.87% and 19.47%, respectively. In contrast, the supply of extra virgin olives (30.24 million liters) is 11.34% higher than in the 2021/2022 campaign. As for the production of pomace oil, it amounted to 19.18 million liters, which is 5.31% more than in the previous campaign, the production volume of which was 18.21 million liters.

Accumulated data of the main vegetable oils (sunflower seeds,
rapeseed and soybean), coinciding with the period of the olive oil campaign, reached a total figure of 354.52 million liters, an increase of 2.96% compared to the previous campaign, which reached 344.34 million liters.

If we take not only household consumption, but also all consumption, sunflower oil amounts to 259.43 million liters, which is 6.97% less than the previous campaign. In contrast, seed oil with a volume of 90.44 million liters represents an increase of 53.58%. Rapeseed oil and soybean oil, which have a small market share, also showed negative trends with sales volumes of 3.37 and 1.27 million liters, representing a decrease of 18.83% and 47.42%, respectively.