Half a million euros, the value of 50,000 liters of olive oil, were able to be poured by thieves into two tanks in Cordoba, Spain. According to Bloomberg News, the theft that occurred a week ago shows how popular olive oil has been among criminals in the past year.
Last month, thieves also stole 7,000 liters of olive oil in Thebes, Malaga province. Not only did they take bottled olive oil, but they also tried to quickly pour some of the oil into the bottles themselves. Both bulk olives and their oil are in demand. In Jaén, the “olive oil capital of the world,” 259,000 kilograms of olives were stolen last season alone, an increase of 29 percent compared to the period 2021-2022.
About the author
Dan van Acht is a general correspondent for De Volkskrant.
One look at the sales prices reveals the reason for these brazen thefts. Anyone who buys a bottle of olive oil in southern Spain will spend twice as much as a year ago. Since July, the same bottle has become 15% more expensive nationally, according to Bloomberg calculations. In cities such as Madrid and Barcelona, residents now pay around 10 euros for a liter of olive oil.
The heat is recording and scarcity
“The Spaniards are worried, prices are continuing to rise,” Martin Parra, director of the olive oil production company that witnessed the disappearance of olive oil worth half a million euros, told the news agency. “It looks like olive oil has turned into liquid gold.” In fact, Spanish media are informing consumers about where olive oil – an indispensable product for the average Spaniard – is cheaper. Due to rising prices, consumption fell by 51 percent in the first quarter of this year, according to Jaén University data.
The reason for the high prices: the severe drought that struck Spain in recent months. Temperature records have already been broken in the country long before summer arrives. Hardly a drop of rain fell, prompting the government to provide financial aid worth 630 million euros to farmers whose olive harvest, among other things, was disappointing. For example, Spain produced 620 million kilograms of olive oil last harvest season Financial TimesThat is, much less than the 1.5 billion kilos of olive oil produced in the previous season. Countries such as Portugal and Italy are also suffering disappointing harvests as a result of drought.
There are more reasons to worry. There is a possibility that oil supplies will be exhausted before the olive harvest begins again in February 2024. In any case, the bad season will only cause olive oil prices to rise further in the coming months, a spokesman for the agricultural lobby group ASAG told the newspaper. Financial Times.
As if that wasn’t enough, Spaniards also have to make sure they’re really buying olive oil. For example, more than ten brands were previously removed from shelves in the Extremadura region; It turned out that the olive oil was mixed with other oils that were not suitable for consumption.
