Olive Oil Market Digest w41

Weekly Olive Oil Market Updates

Current Price Hikes Expected to Continue

The Olive Oil production in the 2022/23 season has been one of extremes. Olive Oil prices are constantly breaking all-time-high records. According to the International Olive Council, the mean wholesale EVOO price in the main oil-producing areas of Europe (Chania, Greece - Bari, Italy - Jaén, Spain) was estimated at 8.35 EUR per Kg up to mid-September, which is equivalent to a 102.59% year-to-year increase.

Indicatively, we show the evolution of mean wholesale prices per season for Greek extra virgin olive oil (Chania, Crete) in the last 3 seasons:

Lower Volumes 

This rise in mean price was expected to happen, as there was a significant drop in olive oil production in the pre-mentioned areas. This plummeting is much worse by now, due to the recent floods in Greece that caused huge crop damage.

That's why the big increase in prices starts from the initial point of the chain, the oil mills. This is apparent in the case of Chania, as shown in the next plot, which contains the mean price of EVOO in local oil mills in 2022 and 2023. 

Lower Imports 

These adverse conditions could be curbed through imports from outside of the main EU countries (GR, IT, ES), but imports have also stalled in comparison to the previous season. 

The same also holds true for EU olive oil intra-trade, which is slightly lower than last year's level, whereas consumption of olive oil has receded much less.

Persisting Demand

The demand side's resistance to the skyrocketing prices indicates that, nowadays, there is a high propensity for olive oil consumption. This creates big opportunities for B2B buyers, mainly packaged products wholesalers and Food Production Units, as well as olive oil producers.

Increased Fraud Cases

The most dire danger arising in this context for all market participants is the growing number of fraud cases. Many market operators, mainly independent packagers and wholesalers, implement practices such as re-labeling older produce as fresh and mixing olive oil with various types of (cheaper) seed oil, like sunflower oil. This is bad both for producers, whose trustworthiness gets wrongly doubted due to the actions of a small minority in the market, as well as for B2B buyers, who pay high prices for prime material that can harm the quality of their final product and their reputation.

To help B2B olive oil buyers navigate through these conditions, 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.