The price of olive oil has been rising by double digits for 26 months and today costs 39% more than a year ago

MADRID, 11 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The price of olive oil accumulated up to July 28 consecutive months of year-on-year increases, with double-digit growth in the last 26 months, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE).

In July of this year, the last data collected by the organization within the CPI statistics, the price of olive oil was 38.8% more expensive than a year before. It is the second most pronounced year-on-year increase in 21 years, only surpassed by that of April 2022, when the price of olive oil soared by 42.5% year-on-year.

The price of olive oil began its current upward path in April 2021, when a year-on-year increase of 2% was recorded, which increased to 5% in May. From then on and for 26 consecutive months, it has become more expensive at double-digit rates.

Farmers point to drought as the source of higher olive oil prices. The lack of water has caused, for the second consecutive year, a poor harvest, as production has not reached the levels necessary to satisfy demand.

So far this year (January-July), olive oil has become more expensive by almost 16%. In monthly values, its price has risen in six of the last seven months. The latest data, from July, reflects that olive oil cost Spanish households 5% more than in June.

According to data from the INE, the average consumption of olive oil per household stood at 22.1 liters in 2022, the highest figure since 2018, when its average consumption was 22.2 liters per family.

This figure is far from the 30.4 liters that each household consumed on average in 2007, the year in which the financial crisis broke out.

During the first year of the pandemic, the average household consumption of olive oil was 20.5 liters, a figure that increased as Spain regained normality, reaching 22.1 liters in 2022.

Average household spending on olive oil reached 97.7 euros in 2022, compared to 77.6 euros in 2021. That is, last year, households spent an average of 20.1 euros more on olive oil than in the immediately preceding year.

This is the highest figure since 2007, when the average household expenditure on olive oil stood at 98.9 euros. Between 2006 and 2022, the year with the lowest spending on this basic product in the so-called Mediterranean diet was 2020, the first year of the pandemic, when an average of 65.5 euros per household was reached.