`Catalonia Says its Output Will Be Lower, But Prices Should Remain Stable - Olive Oil Times

Catalonia Says its Output Will Be Lower, But Prices Should Remain Stable

By Gaynor Selby
Oct. 22, 2015 14:12 UTC

Olive oil pro­duc­tion in the Spanish region of Catalonia has fallen by one-third this sea­son with a stronger decrease in Lower Ebro Montsià and Lleida.

In an announce­ment today, the Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Catalonia (FCAC), said there will be a 33 per­cent reduc­tion over­all with vol­ume esti­mates cal­cu­lated at 25,000 tons.

This com­pares with 37,400 tons last year and an aver­age annual pro­duc­tion of 32,000 tons for the region.

The FCAC, which rep­re­sents and defends Catalonian agri­cul­tural coop­er­a­tives, has bro­ken down pro­duc­tion lev­els for the dif­fer­ing olive oil pro­duc­ing regions in Catalonia.

There is con­sid­er­ably lower pro­duc­tion in Lleida, in the west of Catalonia, while the region of Siurana is expect­ing a slight increase, although this is not defin­i­tive at the moment, accord­ing to the a press release.

Lleida’s vol­umes have gone down 18 per­cent — from 8,500 last year to 7,000 tons — dur­ing this year’s cam­paign.

Meanwhile, pro­duc­tion in Lower Ebro Montsià has sharply declined from 23,000 tons last sea­son to the cur­rent 12,000 tons, a 48 per­cent decrease.

Despite the steep decline in pro­duc­tion, the FCAC remains buoy­ant about the price lev­els from this year’s cam­paign.

Last sea­son the aver­age price of oil rose 45 per­cent, due to lower pro­duc­tion at the state level,” says head of the FCAC, Toni Galcerán.

This year, the price at source should remain sta­ble because there will be a bal­ance between sup­ply and demand.”

One of the fac­tors behind this year’s low quan­ti­ties was the weather dur­ing the sum­mer months includ­ing a lack of rain in olive grow­ing heart­lands and high tem­per­a­tures in spring which con­tin­ued through the sum­mer.


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