Don’t panic over the drop in extra virgin olive oil in Spain by 50 cents in the space of a week, from 8 euros/kg to the current 7.5 euros/kg.
The explanation provided by the operators, in addition to being simple, is also very convincing: trade is at its lowest level for years, around a third of normality at only 1000 tonnes in a week according to PoolRed, but above all these are operations limited to some emptying of tanks of dubious quality, to be sold before the summer, or before their depreciation due to the change to virgin olive oil or even lampante.
Evidence of this market anomaly is also in the difference, unusually low for this season, between virgin olive oil and lampante, which has reached around 10 cents. The purchase of large quantities of oil classified as extra virgin, but in reality closer to virgin, has lowered the requests for the latter category, with the consequence of a differential with the clear minimum terms.
At the time of writing, to find good extra virgin olive oil in Spain you still need 8-8.2 euros/kgbut it is much easier to find tanks of extra virgin olive oil that already show problems, especially organoleptic, which the cooperatives sell off today, so as not to sell them off at an even lower price in a few weeks.
The price of commercial standard quality extra virgin olive oil, according to PoolRed, stood at 7.5 euros/kg.
The price of virgin olive oil is just above 7 euros/kg, at 7.05-7.08 euros/kg.
While lampante oil is positioned just below 7 euros/kg, at 6.9-6.92 euros/kgreturning to the values of June 10th.
In Italy, however, it is calm. In the last week no significant market or price movements occur. In Puglia there are still a few dozen tanks of good quality extra virgin olive oil available on the market, half of which are “booked” for August and September. The price therefore remains essentially stable at 9.5 euro/kg and it is more than likely that any figure from the end of July until the beginning of the olive oil campaign is more virtual, i.e. made up of very modest exchanges and not indicative of a trend, than real.
Obviously there is no shortage of bets on next season’s prices but it is nothing more than this: bets. The few, very few, contracts already signed on oil to be made concern Spain and Portugal at a price of 6-6.5 euros/kg, but with large landowners who have every interest in obtaining liquidity at a price which they still consider profitable. Only with more certain data on the next production will they really begin to move the market. Now it’s just speculation and it’s not worth getting alarmed about.
