--- title: World faces olive oil shortage description: The price of Spanish olive oil reached its highest point since 2006 canonical: https://time.com/3976500/spanish-olive-oil-shortage/ author: Nolan Feeney article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-29T12:41:24.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T09:41:26.517Z article:section: Business og:title: Spanish Olive Oil Supply Hits 'Critically Low Levels' og:description: The price of Spanish olive oil reached its highest point since 2006 og:url: https://time.com/3976500/spanish-olive-oil-shortage/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc681bf74b2790d59/69885cf80a4a2285669c55da/spain-olive-oil.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Spain olive oil og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Spanish Olive Oil Supply Hits 'Critically Low Levels' twitter:description: The price of Spanish olive oil reached its highest point since 2006 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc681bf74b2790d59/69885cf80a4a2285669c55da/spain-olive-oil.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # World Faces Olive Oil Shortage  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jul 29, 2015 12:41 PM CUT  Olive groves seen in Andalusia, Spain. Olive groves seen in Andalusia, Spain.Getty Images  by [Nolan Feeney](/author/nolan-feeney/)  ## Nolan Feeney Jul 29, 2015 12:41 PM CUT Prices for Spanish olive oil are [approaching an all-time high](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-28/spanish-olive-oil-prices-near-record-on-critically-low-supply "undefined") as hot weather and disease harm the country’s harvest. Last week the cost of Spanish extra-virgin olive oil rose 5 percent to $4,272 per metric ton—the highest since April 2006 and “critically low levels,” according to industry analysts Oil World. A bacterial disease _xylella fastidiosa_ and fruit-fly infestations have also contributed to a 50 percent decline in Spanish and Italian olive oil output for the 2014-2015 season, Bloomberg reports. Spain and Italy account for 70% of the world’s olive oil. “It’s quite a concerning acceleration in the price of olive oil,” Lamine Lahouasnia, the head of packaged-food research at market intelligence firm Euromonitor International, told Bloomberg. “The supply shortages as a result of the drought, and particularly under-production in Spain, have filtered through to the marketplace.” Olive oil prices around the world have risen an average of around 10 percent in the past year, outpacing the global inflation rate for packaged foods according to Euromonitor. \[[_Bloomberg_](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-07-28/spanish-olive-oil-prices-near-record-on-critically-low-supply "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3976500/spanish-olive-oil-shortage/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3976500/spanish-olive-oil-shortage/"},"headline":"World Faces Olive Oil Shortage","datePublished":"2015-07-29T12:41:24.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T09:41:26.517Z","description":"The price of Spanish olive oil reached its highest point since 2006","url":"https://time.com/3976500/spanish-olive-oil-shortage/","keywords":["food and drink","Spain","olive oil"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc681bf74b2790d59/69885cf80a4a2285669c55da/spain-olive-oil.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nolan Feeney","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nolan-feeney/"}],"articleSection":"Business","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc681bf74b2790d59/69885cf80a4a2285669c55da/spain-olive-oil.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Spain olive oil","caption":"Spain olive oil","creditText":"Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/business/","name":"Business"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/food-and-drink/","name":"food and drink"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3976500/spanish-olive-oil-shortage/","name":"World Faces Olive Oil Shortage"}}]}] ```