If you’ve struggled to find a bottle of olive oil at the supermarkets lately or grimaced at the price tag, you’re not imagining it.
“It’s just a replenishment thing. So within a few days, they’ll have stock again … We’ve definitely got enough oil for our customers, which is pretty much every supermarket.” “I know in my household we do buy six bottles of olive oil at a time when it’s at the discount price,”Global olive oil supply has dwindled after the world’s four largest producing countries – Spain, Italy, Portugal and Tunisia – have had olive crops impacted five times in the past decade. Spain alone – the world’s biggest olive oil producing country – had a 48 per cent reduction in its 2023 harvest year amid a drought.
“The imported oil is actually now more expensive than the locally produced. It was the other way around,” said Australian Olive Association chief executive Michael Southan. Roughly half the olive oil Australians consume is grown locally. “We’ve been lucky because we have we do have our own industry.”ANZ executive director of agribusiness industry insights Michael Whitehead
“We’re seeing a bit of a generational change in the industry at the moment, where a lot of the growers who planted groves 25, 30 years ago at that stage where they’re looking to retire. We’re seeing some groves now coming onto the market for sale,” he said.