World Olive Oil Production Slips, Brazilian Imports Sharply Lower

According to new fig­ures released by the International Olive Council (IOC), world olive oil pro­duc­tion is expected to fall slightly for the new crop year to 2,918,000 tons, or 7 per­cent lower than the recently com­pleted 2015/16 crop year.

Estimates put pro­duc­tion from IOC mem­ber coun­tries at 2,723,500 tons: 93 per­cent of the world total. This is an 8 per­cent decrease from the pre­vi­ous sea­son.

Production in EU mem­ber coun­tries will amount to 2,098,500 tons, with Spain being the biggest pro­ducer with 1,380,000 tons, only slightly less than in 2015/16 (-1 per­cent).

Italy’s pro­jected out­put of 330,000 tons rep­re­sents a more sig­nif­i­cant decrease of 30 per­cent. Figures are also expected to be down in Greece with 260,000 tons for a 19 per­cent decrease, while Portugal will show a 1 per­cent increase to 110,000 tons.

As for IOC mem­ber coun­tries located out­side Europe, pro­duc­tion for the 2016/17 har­vest sea­son is esti­mated at 625,000 tons, 3 per­cent less than the pre­vi­ous year.

While Turkey is pre­dicted to see a larger crop with 177,000 tons (+24 per­cent), pro­duc­tion will be 29 per­cent lower in Tunisia with a har­vest of 100,000 tons. Algeria will also see a decrease of 11 per­cent, while in Jordan pro­duc­tion will be down 22 per­cent. Figures in other IOC mem­ber coun­tries are expected to reveal con­stant lev­els or a slight decrease com­pared to the pre­vi­ous sea­son.

The fig­ures were sup­plied to the IOC by its mem­bers, and are based on esti­mates only, as it’s too early in the crop year to have a clear idea and the immi­nent har­vest is sub­ject to weather con­di­tions. The IOC will release new data by the end of November which will pro­vide a higher level of accu­racy.

Figures released for imports of olive oil and olive pomace oil dur­ing the the first ten months of the 2015/16 sea­son (October 2015 –July 2016), reveal increases of 10 per­cent in Australia, 11 per­cent in China, 2 per­cent in the United States and 1 per­cent in Canada, com­pared with the same period the pre­vi­ous year.

However, some coun­tries have been import­ing less olive oil dur­ing the period, with the most sig­nif­i­cant decrease in Brazil: 31 per­cent less than last year. Japan also recorded a decrease of 9 per­cent, while Russia imported 1 per­cent less than the pre­vi­ous year. Within the EU, intra-EU acqui­si­tions have gone down by 8 per­cent while extra-EU imports decreased by 51 per­cent.

Another noted trend is increas­ing pro­ducer prices for extra vir­gin olive oil in Spain and Italy. Prices have risen recently in Spain to €3.18 per kilo­gram at the end of September, while in Italy, prices reached €3.92 per kilo­gram.

• IOC September 2016 Newsletter