Spain: First producer of the world
Spain is by far the main
producer of oilve oil in the world. Our country leads the ranking of producing
nations with around 55% of the worldwide olive harvest.
Nevertheless, since the southern Spain went through a drought, last crop here went down to 825.000
tn, meaning only almost 50% of the Spanish harvest we had last year (2013).
Everyone who is familiar
with this sector knows that olive oil market is subject to enormous competition.
Yet, the supply and demand law could temp the Spanish olive growers to increase
their prices.
Spain: aspiring to the title of ´first exporter of the world´
But, in the end, they operate in a global scene so the said policy will surely bring them undesirable consequences.With an eye on its eternal rival, Italy, in the last years Spanish olive oil packers have been struggling to conquer and strengthen markets abroad. And it is crucial a smart decision-making when you want to preserve a leading position, even if a poor crop comes -as it is the case lately-.
For
instance, Spain is trying to be a leader in the United States olive oil market, which is the first importer of the world for this product (38% of
the imports).
Evolution of total U.S. Olive Oil imports per country
 |
| Source: International Olive Council -http://www.internationaloliveoil.org/- |
The 2012/13 season was not
good and, as can be seen in the table above, Spain lost near to 10% of its
market share in the United States. Reducing the supply and not keeping
competitive prices has a price to pay too: a client thrown away. Playing
in a such a competitive game simply means that customers have the upper hand.
Needless to say the effort
and high costs of getting new customers, the broad consensus within the olive
oil Spanish experts is that sacrifices must be done. In order to assure our
competitive position in the world, the major packers/exporters are led to buy
somewhere else around the Meditteranean sea at the expense of the trade margins –mainly of the local growers-.
