High Olive Oil Prices in Spain Spur Interest in Black Friday Discounts

Consumers flock to shops on Black Friday to take advan­tage of the best bar­gains on Christmas gifts or to upgrade their flatscreen tele­vi­sions. This year, the antic­i­pated dis­counts on extra vir­gin olive oil drove crowds to local super­mar­kets across Spain.

Over the past year, olive oil prices have risen to his­toric lev­els in Spain, leav­ing con­sumers and pro­duc­ers alike con­cerned. The pri­mary rea­son behind the increase can be attrib­uted to two years of drought in Spain, which typ­i­cally accounts for approx­i­mately 40 per­cent of the world’s olive oil sup­ply.

As a result of high tem­per­a­tures in May dam­ag­ing olive trees at the moment of flow­er­ing, the Iberian peninsula’s per­sis­tent drought, major flood­ing and intense for­est fires, Spanish farm­ers have strug­gled to main­tain their olive oil pro­duc­tion, lead­ing to a decrease in sup­ply and sub­se­quently dri­ving up prices. In 2022, a liter of olive oil was €4; in January 2023, it was €6 and now costs around €9 in Spain.

The record-high prices of olive oil have trig­gered notice­able changes in the Mediterranean lifestyle for Spanish locals.

A once-com­mon­place sta­ple at restau­rant and cafe­te­ria tables, olive oil now requires a spe­cific request, with servers cau­tiously pour­ing it onto din­ers’ plates. Some super­mar­kets have resorted to secur­ing olive oil with elec­tronic tags sim­i­lar to expen­sive alco­holic bev­er­ages.

Recent research from the University of Jaén on the sale of oils and fats in Spain found that extra vir­gin olive oil sales dropped by 11 per­cent in the first nine months of 2023, while vir­gin olive oil and olive pomace oil sales rose.

Hence, when major Spanish super­mar­ket chains adver­tised sub­stan­tial dis­counts on olive oil dur­ing Black Friday, with some dis­counted peri­ods extend­ing through the end of the month, locals eagerly stocked up on this beloved cor­ner­stone of the Mediterranean diet.

However, the increase in olive oil prices has also led to increased theft and fraud­u­lent prac­tices within the indus­try.

Incidents of thefts, dilu­tion of extra vir­gin olive oil with lower grades or other types of edi­ble oils, fal­si­fi­ca­tion of ship­ping data and decep­tive mar­ket­ing tac­tics aim­ing to mis­lead cus­tomers have been reported.

While the start of the har­vest has tem­porar­ily tipped the bal­ance of sup­ply and demand, with olive oil prices at ori­gin decreas­ing slightly from record-high lev­els, this decline has yet to reflect on store shelves, where con­sumers con­tinue to deal with ele­vated prices.

• ABC Sevilla