Olive oil prices. Inactivity and downward trends in Spain are also transferred to Greece

Written by: Nikos Michelakis

The still unpredictable developments of the coming period do not seem to affect decisions on valuable buying and selling both from the side of the producers and from the side of the buyers. Thus, the market, which has been frozen for weeks, continues to freeze more with the percentage of olive mills that do not respond or do not give prices to the SEDIK Bulletin reaching up to 80% in Crete and 75% in the Peloponnese, which shows that there are corresponding offers from large buyers mainly foreign.

Small producers on their part, those who have small quantities still keep them, as they say, for their home and their children.

Large producers and those with small quantities available for sale are now beginning to consider the possibility of price drops and are already asking for offers to sell, but will not accept even small drops!

Finally, this period is strongly influenced by the developments in Spain, where the last rains that fell there already caused downward trends. But it will also be affected by the flowering and fruiting developments of the upcoming production, which are subject to the influence of many unknown factors. The unlikely rains, if they come, will affect for the better, while any heatwaves will affect production for the worse, while the reverse will be the evolution of prices.

Prices in the main olive producing countries

• In Greece, the prices of extra last week ranged from 8.0 to 8.90 €/m. and were formed by region as follows: In Crete, there was a drop of 10-40 cents per kilo and prices ranged between €8.0-8.90/kg, while in the Peloponnese they ranged between €8.40-8.55/kg K. On the islands (Corfu) they were kept at €8.0/m.
• In Spain there was some drop in the minimums and a rise in the maximums and they finally ranged between €6.83/m. – €8.80/m.
• In Italy, both the maximum and minimum prices showed some decline and ranged between €8.30-9.60/kg, while in Tunisia they also fell to €8.30/kg.

Is ‘bear madness’ coming to olive oil?

Price drop of €1.5/kg in one month in Spain

The few buying and selling of olive oil in recent weeks combined with the abundant rains in the countryside of Spain which allowed the relief of olive cultivation in a large part of the country’s olive producing areas (except the coastal areas) and the several requests from farmers to olive mills to liquidate their product , caused, according to Spanish media, notable drops in producer prices.

Thus, they note, in about a month, producer prices have fallen by 1-1.5 euros/kg after prices for extra from 8.00 €/kg at the beginning of March fell to 6.50-6.80 €/ kg in the first week of April, while the same downward trend was shown in the other quality categories.

And the trend of this price drop, according to reports, is caused by the willingness of a number of producers to sell product at lower prices.

At the same time, there are also offers of olive oil of the next harvest from Portugal at €5/kg, which undoubtedly push down the market prices in Spain even more.

Price forecasts for the future

In summary, however, the Spanish media conclude that, despite the new drop in prices, prices will not move much below current prices in the coming weeks, while some possible recovery may occur when formulators go to the market to meet needs them for the second part of the year.

In addition to these opinions, in our opinion, an important role will also be played by the final height of the upcoming olive production, which will be formed after the completion of the fruit setting around the end of May-beginning of June. We are watching.

NIKOS MICHELAKIS

• Nikos Michelakis, is Dr. Agronomist, former Director of the Chania Olive Institute and Expert. Consultant of SEDIK. His articles express personal views and do not necessarily reflect the views of SEDIK. They may be republished only with the permission of ([email protected])