Many shoppers have been confronted by shelves of expensive bottles of olive oil.
Seven out of the 10 greatest price rises during the cost-of-living crisis can be attributed to food and drink products, so it’s not unusual that olive oil has increased in price.
But many shoppers have taken to X to question the massive increase in price of the product.
One user said: “Sorry but wtf is going on with the price of olive oil??”.
Sorry but wtf is going on with the price of olive oil?? pic.twitter.com/y5R8bufqnA
— melraunch (@melraunch1) April 9, 2024
While another added: “I've been fuming for months. The price of olive oil is actually disgusting”.
I've been fuming for months.
— Ronke Lawal (@ronkelawal) April 9, 2024
The price of olive oil is actually disgusting 😤😡🤬 https://t.co/zsSEQK3NfG
A third said: “Okay I'm not going mad, the price of olive oil is ridiculous.”.
Okay I'm not going mad, the price of olive oil is ridiculous. https://t.co/lKV19p71ZL
— Henry VIII ✨️| r-WNC (@BlobWithAGob) April 9, 2024
But how much is olive oil and why has it increased in price?
How much is olive oil?
Sky reports that a 500ml bottle of olive oil currently costs £7.45 on average, up from £3.54 in January 2021.
Waitrose's 500ml bottle of olive oil costs £22, making it the most costly. Compared to a 750ml bottle of Whispering Angel Provence Rosé, which costs only £11.49 from the same shop, it is more than twice as expensive.
Why has olive oil increased in price?
The Grocer reported on November 2023 that the price of olive oil has increased by 50 per cent, so you’re now paying £6 or more for a 500ml bottle.
Climate change remains the greatest villain causing the surge in olive oil prices.
Many olive groves in the Mediterranean have dried up as a result of more extreme weather, including droughts and powerful hailstorms that cause flooding. Additionally, the summer of 2023 was the hottest on record for both the area and the entire globe. The biggest producers of olive oil, Greece, Italy, and Spain, have been particularly hard hit.
Olive oil producer and fifth-generation owner of Olio Roi in Badalucco, Italy, Rossella Boeri was impacted by the drought of this past summer and said, "I never saw in all my life a dryness like this one.
"Luckily, the olive trees are strong, but we are facing a really big lack of production which is reflected in our olive oil prices, which coincidentally has led to a lower consumption and demand for our olive oil."
European customers are feeling the pinch as olive oil producers struggle to survive.
In order to meet demand, many suppliers are thinking of buying from South America, with Argentina and Chile, producing some of the most olive plantings.
Illegal selling of olive oil in the States
Big businesses – what Boeri refers to as "cartels" – are raising the price of olive oil, which is affecting smaller, family-run companies and creating panic in supermarkets.
CNN reported that lucrative criminal enterprises have been cashing in by selling fake olive oil that uses sunflower, canola, or even lamp oil to create a product that can retail for up to $30 (£23) a litre in the United States.
Working with the EU's Europol law-enforcement agency, police in Spain and Italy announced in late November that they had apprehended 11 members of one such criminal gang and had seized 12 barrels carrying some 260,000 litres of contaminated, non-virgin, or extra-virgin olive oil.
They also took control of 5,200 more litres of oil that was ready for shipment and was of marketable quality. The oil was falsely labelled as 100 per cent Italian or Spanish, but the authorities declared it "unfit for consumption”.
