La Spain is confirmed on first market for the supply of olive oil by Italy, and Italy is confirmed on best customer for Spanish producers.
Especially this year, marked by the previous campaign which was extremely poor for Italy (not even 244 thousand tons of oil) and returned rich for Spain (1,3 million tons). This fact has pushed the olive oil industry with massive supplies from Iberian soil, also taking advantage of a price that has dropped in a worrying way, to the point of being – just to stick to extra virgin – more than half lower than Italian oil.
And so, from the data released by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, it emerges that in the first nine months of the current campaign – from October to June – in Italy they are 229.400 tons of oil arrived, almost 30% of the total exported by the Iberian country which was 726.100 tons. On closer inspection, the almost 230 thousand tons are very close to the total oil produced in our country in 2024. overall value of exports to Italy was largely for Spain more than one billion euros, with an average price of 4.654 euros per ton.
Obviously, to avoid any misunderstanding, one fact must be clarified: In Italy, olive oil consumption reaches approximately 500 thousand tons per year, making it necessary to source from abroad to meet domestic demand..
In any case, a curiosity not to be underestimated: in Spain there is a very strong olive oil interprofession, composed of olive growers, millers, packagers, in short the entire supply chain. And this interprofession has established that 6 euros per ton are paid for each transaction – between production and 3 from the commercial side – to be allocated to promotion. This means, doing the math, that Italy, with its purchases, has contributed over 1,3 million euros to the advertising of Spanish oil around the world.
Dining and Cooking