Portugal suffers biggest price hike on olive oil in the EU

The price of olive oil in the European Union skyrocketed by 50% in January on the same month in 2023 but prices in Portugal went up by 69%, higher than either Spain or Greece.

The statistics, which come from Eurostat, are also in line from those issued by the Portuguese national statistics institute (INE) that states that the increase in price of olive oil in Portugal is mainly down to an extremely poor harvest last year as well as low national stocks as a result of greater demand, particularly International ones. Spain is the largest producer in the world.
In January this year, all of the Member-States reported an increase in the price of olive oil. On average the price went up 49.6% compared to 47.4% in December 2023.
Portugal now has the most expensive olive oil having gone up 64.8%, followed by Greece (67.4%), Spain (62.9%), Estonia (52.2%) and Cyprus (49.2%).
On the other hand, the least increase in the price of olive oil was felt in Romania (+13%9, followed by Ireland (15.9%), the Netherlands (+17.6%), Slovakia (+18.3%) and Poland (+19.9%).
For the past decade, the oldest cultivated trees on Earth have been showing their vulnerability with many of the Mediterranean’s olive groves drying up due to increasingly difficult weather conditions such as droughts and severe hailstorms leading to floods. And in 2023, the region — as well as the whole planet — experienced the hottest summer on record.
Italy, Greece and Spain, the largest olive-oil producing nations, have felt the greatest impact.