Spain Sees Largest Olive Oil Consumption Increase in Nearly a Decade

A new report from Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries showed that house­hold con­sump­tion of olive oil increased by 3.47 per­cent in 2018, the largest increase since 2011.

Consumption of vir­gin and extra vir­gin olive oil led the way, ris­ing by 9.2 and 7.2 per­cent, respec­tively. Consumption of non-vir­gin olive oil rose slightly, by only 0.2 per­cent.

Combined, the Ministry esti­mates that olive oil rep­re­sented 64.9 per­cent – nearly two-thirds – of all veg­etable oil con­sumed in Spain last year.

One of the rea­sons that olive oil con­sump­tion is buck­ing the pre­vi­ous down­ward trend may be the dra­matic decrease in prices that Spain has expe­ri­enced this year.

At this time in 2017, olive oil was retail­ing at an aver­age of €3.77 ($4.25) per kilo­gram, accord­ing to Poolred, an orga­ni­za­tion that tracks olive oil prices. Since then, prices have fallen by more than 40 per­cent, reach­ing €2.14 ($2.42) per kilo­gram, on aver­age, at the time of writ­ing.

Spain’s Union of Farmers’ and Ranchers’ Unions attrib­uted the increase in con­sump­tion not only to the lower prices, but also bet­ter edu­ca­tion about the health ben­e­fits of olive oil.

“Unión de Uniones attrib­utes these changes to the decline in prices… as well as to a greater knowl­edge and infor­ma­tion on the part of con­sumers of the ben­e­fits of extra vir­gin olive oil, which have yet to be strength­ened,” the orga­ni­za­tion said in a state­ment on its web­site.

In spite of drop­ping prices, the value of olive oil pur­chased by Spaniards slightly increased, ris­ing by 1.4 per­cent. Perhaps reflect­ing the lower prices, the value of vir­gin olive oil pur­chased increased the most, ris­ing by 3.8 per­cent, while value of extra vir­gin olive oil pur­chased rose by 2.5 per­cent. The value of non-vir­gin olive oil pur­chases, how­ever, fell by 6.5 per­cent.

The report also pointed out that the vast major­ity of peo­ple con­sum­ing olive oil, and other types of veg­etable oils, are older and that olive oil con­sump­tion among Spain’s young peo­ple remains quite low.

According to data from the Ministry, Spaniards aged 50 and older accounted for 71.7 per­cent of non-vir­gin olive oil con­sumed in Spain in 2018, 66.5 per­cent of vir­gin olive oil and 69.4 per­cent of extra vir­gin olive oil.

Meanwhile, Spaniards under the age of 35 accounted for 5.6 per­cent of non-vir­gin olive oil con­sump­tion, 6.6 per­cent of 5.6 per­cent of extra vir­gin olive oil con­sump­tion.

The report offered no analy­sis as to why olive oil con­sump­tion among young peo­ple remains so low, but did state that cou­ples with older chil­dren, cou­ples with­out chil­dren and retired adults in the mid­dle class were most likely to pur­chase all three types of olive oil.

• Spain’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries


• Union of Farmers’ and Ranchers’ Unions