Olive Oil Market Digest w9

Weekly Olive Oil Market Updates

Price Updates

Data generated through transactions on the Wikifarmer Marketplace have once again helped us showcase the situation of olive oil markets in the main olive oil-producing countries of the Mediterranean in the form of a table of mean prices. We enriched these data with information shared by trusted industry sources from Greece (Union of Olive Oil-Producing Municipalities of Crete), Spain (PoolRed), and Italy (Ismea Mercati) to offer you the most representative image from the field.

In Greece, market dynamics have settled into a situation characterized by limited commercial transactions driven both by supplier reluctance to sell and moderate, if not faint, demand. 

As a result, no major changes have occurred, with the market showing signs of stagnancy and prices falling in many cases. This stagnancy will have to stop in the coming weeks, as the harvest is officially over for several days now, and the European Commission's data estimate that output levels this year stood at around 150,000 tonnes, significantly lower than last year's 340,000 tonnes.

The results of the upcoming market 'awakening' depend on what side of the market will dominate; will there be a high enough rise in demand that will convince sellers to participate in the market again fully, or will we see a price rally until summer arrives, due the limited availability that will get even sharper due to suppliers drawing from the markets?

Regarding Italy, we are seeing only slight price fluctuations, with the overall climate being unchanged from what we have been accustomed to in recent weeks. It seems as if operators from both sides do not consider the dangers of limited availability at the start of the next season when making their decisions. This probably comes in light of the domestic increase in production and seasonal availability of third-country (mainly Tunisian) produce. As a result, we have not observed frantic stocking or decisive supplier withdrawals.

As for Spain, the conditions our representatives report to us create an image of a rather quiet market. Commercial transactions do occur, but at a much lower pace, so they are far from being noteworthy in terms of volumes and do not help in studying trends. We saw last week on the field that EVOO prices were slightly falling, while prices of Virgin and Lampante olive oil moved in contrasting directions.

We expect the Spanish market to revitalize on March 11 or 12, after the next monthly AICA report is released and operators from both sides can shape a clearer image of the final stock situation.

Across the major olive oil-producing countries of the EU, we could also account the Tunisian olive oil imports as a contributing factor to the regional price drops noted. However, that effect is not strong at all, and this may indicate the fact that the increase (approx. 11%) in Tunisian olive oil this year cannot disburse the markets for the significant drop (approx. 45%) in Turkish oil and the overall reduction in the availability of third-country produce.

Olive Oil Producers Anonymous

The turbulent conditions in the Spanish olive oil market for a third consecutive year have led to a 25% drop in the consumption of extra virgin olive oil this season compared to 2022/23, as dictated by the quantities distributed to the markets. At the same time, though, retail prices have soared by almost 63% compared to last year. This shows us the low elasticity of the demand for olive oil among consumers who value it as an indispensable item of their daily diets. For others unfamiliar with the product and its culinary as well as nutritional value, price hikes made it an unnecessary luxury, and they shifted their attention toward alternative oils and fats.

A more interesting observation, however, comes from the Italian market; researchers and reporters in the sector there noticed that, as prices were soaring this season, price labels on bottles of conventional oil reached levels very close to those of PDO-PGI products, which are top-of-the-shelf products leaning more to the premium side of the market. This makes us believe that the steady establishment of olive oil as a beneficial dietary item in the minds of increasingly health-conscious consumers worldwide, especially in Europe and the West, leaves room for great profit for all participants in the olive oil value chains. This value can be seized through product differentiation by proceeding to the standardization and branding of olive oil, as we have also previously mentioned.

The aforementioned data offer tangible support to our past comments on the loss of added value caused by the obsessive practice of the Greek sector to perform mainly bulk transactions directed to foreign markets, in which their product typically gets rebranded and sold in retail outlets worldwide with the final product paying no tribute to its roots. This loss was evaluated at around 300 million euros for Greece in 2022, and it is evident in the scarcity of Greek olive oil companies exhibiting at the sector’s most renowned fairs. However, the developments in the last two years cannot but lead us to readjust that estimate much higher.

Our view

For us at Wikifarmer, sustainability and business growth for enterprises of both the primary and the secondary sectors across agricultural value chains are tightly linked, and that is not driven merely by financial interest; consumer concerns are pushing operators to reduce the heavy environmental footprint of their business activities. The authorities are already taking steps, but they are mainly concerned with production, as the latest relative EU initiatives are solely concerned with promoting otherwise beneficial practices like carbon farming.For us at Wikifarmer, transparency, sustainability, and social responsibility function as guiding principles in our involvement with the world's markets for agricultural products. They are the standards we are striving to promote to all types of operators across agricultural supply chains. This is why we have been constructing our e-commerce platform in a way that the experience offered to all its users highlights this way of business as the only viable one.

In this sense, Wikifarmer Marketplace helps bridge the gap between producers-suppliers and serious, responsible buyers in the global markets so that the end products that reach consumer tables worldwide have come from supply chains that respect all their members and have the least environmental impact possible. This is the lens under which we use and advance Food-Tech to optimize how humanity caters to its most basic need; food. More details on Food Tech and our contribution to it can be found in our latest special edition.

Wikifarmer negotiates with several suppliers to secure a steady supply of Olive oil at reasonable prices. Our team can help you with price negotiation, pay with credit terms, and arrange logistics and transportation. We also implement strict Quality Assurance procedures, making sure that producers provide us with all certificates that prove their claims about their products, and that all relevant analyses take place. 

Our contribution is not constrained just to the facilitation of value optimization for the various market players. We also invest a lot in making sure that our highly-valued partners, either from the supply or from the demand side, keep up with the latest developments in their fields.

This is why we have created Wikifarmer Academy, in order to offer affordable educational courses to all. The Wikifarmer Academy is an online school that aims to provide complete educational courses that will empower you and help you cultivate more efficiently and sustainably. In case you are interested in learning more, check our new course "Wikifarmer Expert in Sustainable Olive Oil Production, Quality, and Economics" here.