Shock as olive oil is dethroned as the most used cooking oil in Spain
Spain usually supplies around 40% of the world’s olive oil
Support truly
independent journalism
Our mission is to deliver unbiased, fact-based reporting that holds power to account and exposes the truth.
Whether $5 or $50, every contribution counts.
Support us to deliver journalism without an agenda.
![Louise Thomas](https://static.independent.co.uk/static-assets/support-us/louise-thomas.png)
Louise Thomas
Editor
Sunflower oil has dethroned olive oil as king of the kitchen in Spain.
The news has left many in the world’s largest olive oil producer shocked, as rising prices force consumers to switch to cheaper options.
Spaniards bought 107 million litres (28.3 million gallons) of all types of olive oil in the first half of 2024 compared to 179 million litres of sunflower oil, according to Spain‘s biggest olive oil bottling association, Anierac.
![Bottles of virgin olive oil, sealed with an anti-theft system, are photographed on a shelf in a shop in Barcelona, Spain](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/06/25/14/Spain_Olive_Oil_17072.jpg)
Until this year, olive oil has been the most popular cooking oil in Spanish households, accounting for 62% of sales by volume in 2023 while sunflower oil represented almost 34%, according to the Ministry of Agriculture.
“It is clear that olive oil consumption is falling in Spain,” said Primitivo Fernandez, spokesman for Anierac. “There are households that used to buy only olive oil and for the first time are now buying sunflower oil and olive oil,” he said.
Olive oil sales by volume fell 18% from the first half of 2023, Anierac said. Sunflower oil sales increased by 25% in volume last year, according to official data.
![A tank is filled with olive oil at the ‘La Betica Aceitera’ oil mill in the southern town of Quesada, a rural community in the heartland of Spain's olive country](https://static.independent.co.uk/2023/11/02/16/Europe_High_Food_Prices_48264.jpg)
A bottle of sunflower oil cost an average of 1.86 euros ($2.07) a litre last year, while pricier olive oil types cost upwards of 6 euros a litre, 50% more than in 2022, official data showed.
Spain usually supplies around 40% of the world’s olive oil, but heatwaves in the spring and a prolonged drought reduced olive harvests over the past two years, doubling olive oil prices to record levels.
That has pushed the staple of the Mediterranean diet beyond the reach of poor households in Spain, which are switching to cheaper sunflower oil, according to a Ministry of Agriculture report on food consumption trends in 2023.
At the end of last year, olive oil was mainly consumed in middle and upper-middle class households, the report said.
One-litre bottles of extra-virgin olive oil were selling for as much as 14.5 euros ($15.77) in some supermarkets last year, putting them in the category of products retailers fit with security tags.
In June, the Spanish government cut the value added tax on olive oil to make it more affordable even as prices have eased a little this year.
Spain‘s largest supermarket chain Mercadona has cut the price of olive oil by 25% this year and this week is offering 1 litre bottles below 7 euros to woo back customers, a company source said.
Subscribe to Independent Premium to bookmark this article
Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Premium subscription today.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments