The shortage of olive oil due to the limited production in the current campaign due to the drought and the bad expectations regarding the next campaign, explains why the final prices for the consumer continue to grow. Extra virgin olive oil is already around nine euros per liter, an unprecedented figure in the province of Jaén for this food, the basis of the Mediterranean diet.
For the general secretary of COAG Jaén, José Luis Ávila, the current price situation “does not benefit anyone”. In statements he has indicated that the producing sector has been selling the oil throughout the campaign and “No type of speculation has been generated with the oil by the production”. Proof of this, according to the COAG leader, are the outputs of oil that are taking place every month and that are “high for the price situation we have.”
According to Ávila, “there is practically no oil left in the hands of producers” and the market situation responds to “a tremendous shortage of the product”. For the agrarian leader, what is happening must lead to learning and taking measures so that “this does not happen.”
“It cannot be that we throw ourselves away, being as we are a country that is a net exporter of olive oil, we throw away years selling our product at very low prices and then situations like these arise,” said Ávila, who has insisted that the “permanent” and “increasingly frequent” droughts are putting producers “on the ropes” and leading to “a rise in prices that logically does not benefit anyone”.
“We need a set of tools that in the future allows us to better link some campaigns with others and that allows us to have a much more stable price horizon for a food that It is not only a food but also a source of health and the basis of the Mediterranean dietAvila pointed out.