Prices. The downward trends have stopped, but the market’s inactivity continues

They don’t buy 75% of olive mills in Crete and 45% in Peloponnese!

The downward trends noted at the end of March – beginning of April, causing producers to worry about their continuation, seem to have been stopped by the producers’ refusal to sell at the lowest prices offered to them.
Thus, the market, which has been frozen for weeks, still maintains its very low mobility, with the percentage of olive mills that do not buy or do not respond to the SEDIK Price Bulletin reaching up to 75% in Crete and 45% in the Peloponnese, a fact that can be seen to be caused by resistances from both sides.
Buyers do not appear to be risk-averse by offering high prices, hoping that a good flowering development will cause producers to fear falling prices and result in reduced price purchases.
On the other hand, the producers, who do not have significant quantities, are still keeping them, as they say, for their family, while the producers with large available quantities, which are certainly few, are obviously thinking about the possibility of a drop in prices, but towards currently they do not accept lower prices!

Finally, as we have written before and this is also reproduced by other media, this period will be strongly influenced by the final percentage of fruit set both here and in Spain. And this, of course, will strongly depend on the possible rains and heat waves that would follow.
The unlikely rains, if they come, will affect the production for the better, while the possible heat waves will affect the production for the worse! And of course the reverse will be the evolution of prices!

Prices in the main olive producing countries

Finally, based on the prices given by the few who responded to the SEDIK Bulletin, and the data we derive from international authoritative sites, the levels of producer prices for extra virgins, internationally, are presented on April 16 as follows (Table. 1):
–In Greece, the prices of extra in the week of April 23 ranged from €6.50 to €8.90/kg and were structured by region as follows:
– In Crete, they ranged between €7.20-8.90/kg, in the Peloponnese between €7.0-8.55/kg. while on the islands between €6.50 and €7.50/m
– In Spain they were kept at about the same levels and finally fluctuated between €6.92/kg – €9.00/kg.
– In Italy they showed a slight drop and ranged between €8.0 and €9.50/kg
– In Tunisia were kept at the same levels and ranged at €7.85/kg.

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