Olive oil prices soar 25% as heatwave hits crops

The price of olive oil is set to increase as heatwaves hit production in Spain, the supplier of Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Waitrose, Morrisons and Asda has warned.

Acesur, which supplies the UK’s biggest supermarkets told the BBC, that prices could rise by 20-25% in the coming months, as Spain, Italy and Portugal have been experiencing “extreme” temperatures and a lack of rain in recent weeks.

Acestur produces over 200,000 tonnes of olive oil annually, out of the roughly 1.4 million tonnes is produced in Spain each year.

The producer also retails in over 100 countries, selling around 20,000 tonnes a year on the UK and packs own-label for the Big 4 grocers and Waitrose, alongside stocking its La Espanola brand.

Acesur’s export manager Miguel Colmenero told the BBC the impact of the heatwave on production was “drastic”.

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According to Colmenero, Spain produced around 1.4 million tonnes of olive oil last year, however, officials are now forecasting as little as one million tonnes for this season.

He said this is also having an impact on global prices, which would “eventually feed through into prices for customers, although there would be a three to four month lag because many companies would already have signed 12-month contracts with retailers.”

However, he said companies would eventually have to raise their prices when they renewed contracts and consumers could see increases of 20-25%.

This comes as the average price of own-label olive oil in the Big 4 grocers were up by 50.2% on last year at the beginning of August.

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