`Table Olive Production in Spain Rebounds, but Falls Short of Initial Expectations - Olive Oil Times
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Table Olive Production in Spain Rebounds, but Falls Short of Initial Expectations

By Paolo DeAndreis
Sep. 16, 2024 12:59 UTC

Table olive pro­duc­tion in Spain is expected to grow by at least 20 per­cent this year com­pared to last year.

According to Interaceituna, the sector’s inter­pro­fes­sional orga­ni­za­tion, Spain is pro­jected to pro­duce 492,250 tons of table olives in 2024, up from 408,790 tons in 2023.

The organization’s ear­lier esti­mates, reported in July, were more opti­mistic, pro­ject­ing a yield exceed­ing 500,000 tons.

See Also:Spanish Growers Eye Indian Market for Table Olives

The fore­cast was revised down­ward mainly because August was excep­tion­ally hot and dry in most pro­duc­tion areas.

These weather con­di­tions hin­dered olive devel­op­ment, with smaller fruits often diverted to olive oil pro­duc­tion.

Interaceituna detailed how the most pop­u­lar table olive cul­ti­vars have per­formed, with Manzanilla pro­duc­tion ris­ing by 75 per­cent com­pared to 2023, the most sig­nif­i­cant increase.

Hojiblanca, the most pop­u­lar table olive vari­ety, increased by 21 per­cent to 235,850 tons com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year. However, pro­duc­tion was 8.4 per­cent below the aver­age of the last four cam­paigns.

Both Hojiblanca and Manzanilla are also widely used for olive oil pro­duc­tion.

The avail­abil­ity of table olives in Spain will impact the pro­duc­t’s price and global trade.

At a recent meet­ing orga­nized by Andalusian farm­ers and researchers in Arahal, the focus was on the chal­lenges fac­ing the table olive sec­tor.

Those include work­force short­ages, main­tain­ing olive qual­ity amid cli­mate change and the gen­er­a­tional tran­si­tion needed to pre­serve Andalucia’s rural tra­di­tions.

Price vari­a­tions of Spanish table olives in inter­na­tional mar­kets partly reflect these chal­lenges.

According to International Olive Council fig­ures, the price of 100 kilo­grams of Spanish table olives rose by 28 per­cent in June 2024 com­pared to the pre­vi­ous sea­son, reach­ing €431. However, export vol­umes in the same period declined by 14 per­cent.

Notably, direct exports of Spanish table olives to the United States fell by 33 per­cent in the last sea­son, adding to the reduc­tion in recent years.

This trend is attrib­uted to the pro­longed and com­plex tar­iff dis­pute between the two coun­tries.

According to IOC fig­ures, the U.S. is the largest importer of table olives, with over 174,000 tons imported in the 2023/24 crop year, fol­lowed by Brazil with 135,000 tons.

The national Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Food esti­mates that table olive pro­duc­tion in 2023/24 is clos­ing at 407,400 tons, slightly below the 414,120 tons reported in 2022/23.

In 2021/22, an excep­tion­ally pro­duc­tive sea­son, Spanish farms har­vested 659,760 tons of olives for the table olive mar­ket.

Spain is by far the largest pro­ducer of table olives. IOC esti­mates that Spain will account for 65 per­cent of Europe’s total pro­duc­tion in 2023/24.

Spain is also the most rel­e­vant table olives exporter. IOC fig­ures show that Spanish table olive exports reached 306,947 tons in 2022/2023.

Greece fol­lowed with 186,815 tons exported dur­ing the same period.

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