Spain’s imports of Argentinian olive oil more than doubled in 2023 compared to the previous year due to a poor harvest and rising prices, according to a report by Olive Oil Times.
Olive oil shipments – Spain’s seventh largest agricultural import from Argentina – increased from €11.5M (US$12.6M) in 2022 to €37.6M (US$41M), the 26 June report said.
At 660,000 tonnes, Spain’s 2022/23 harvest was its lowest in more than a decade, Olive Oil Times wrote.
In addition, harvests had been poor across the Mediterranean basin and Turkey – one of the few countries where production had exceeded expectations – had introduced a bulk export ban, the report said.
Meanwhile, Argentina’s bumper 2023 harvest of 35,000 tonnes, had given the world’s largest producer outside the Mediterranean basin increased capacity to export olive oil, Olive Oil Times wrote.
According to Argentine agricultural association Rural Rosario, the country’s virgin and extra virgin olive oil exports increased by 137% in the first 10 months of 2023 – reaching a record high 30,567 tonnes – compared with the same period the previous year.
“With the dramatic drop in European production in general and Spanish production in particular, Argentina - despite having a small exportable supply - positioned itself in the first half of 2023 as the sixth world exporter of olive oil,” the association was quoted as saying.
According to Rural Rosario data, Spain was the largest market for Argentine olive oil exporters in 2023, with 34% of exports by value and 33% by volume. The USA and Brazil were the other leading export destinations.
“There is … a lot of demand for Argentine oils … in markets with low harvests… and with a decrease in olive oil stocks,” Guillermo Kemp, executive director of Argentine producer and exporter Solfrut, told Olive Oil Times in a 2023 interview.
Most Argentine olive oil exports to Spain are shipped in bulk to major bottling companies, including Deoleo, then oil sold domestically or re-exported, according to the report.
However, with producers across Argentina expecting olive oil production to decline in 2024, it was unlikely that Spain’s olive oil imports from Argentina would increase again.
