23/9/2014
Salad days are over for Med diet followers | FT Data
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Salad days are over for Med diet followers Simon Greaves Sep 23 13:25 Comments
The price of salad is about to jump after prices for olive oil, lettuce and tomatoes have soared following a lengthy drought in Spain. The lack of rain in the southern part of the country has led to fears the olive harvest could only be less than half of last year’s level. The shortfall in Spain comes at the same time as the crop in Puglia, Italy’s main olive farming region, has been hit by blight.Olive oil prices in Spain have soared 46 per cent since the start of the year to €2,550 a tonne. The Spanish drought has also affected lettuce and tomato production as well as other fruit and vegetables. Wholesale market iceberg lettuce prices have seen a 50 per cent increase since August, rising from €0.35 per kilogramme to €0.53, while wholesale vine tomato prices have risen 73 per cent from €0.53 per kg to €1.30. Loraine Hudson, analyst at commodities data firm Mintec, said the olive oil market was following a similar pattern to 2012 when a drought hit production. Prices jumped in 2012 after Spain’s olive oil production was 61 per cent down on 2011, tumbling to 619,000 tonnes, the lowest since 1995. The market fell back in 2013 after a record harvest of 1.7m tonnes. Current estimates put the Spanish oil production at over 710,000 tonnes, down 60 per cent year-on-year, but 15 per cent higher than in 2012, but Ms Hudson said the effects of the drought would not be fully known until the harvest is completed between October and November. Olive oil harvesting in Andalucía takes place between October and January but unless the weather improves in coming weeks this year’s crop is expected to nowhere near the 2013 harvest. Spain produces 50 per cent of the world olive oil market with 73 per cent of that sourced from Andalucía and 16 per cent from Catalonia. In 2013, oil exports from Andalucía were worth €1.5bn. The downturn in production comes after Andalucía saw a huge increase in olive oil exports for the first half of 2014. Exports between January and June 2014 reached €1.07bn ($1.4bn). The crop forms three-quarters of Spain’s total olive oil exports. In the wholesale market, virgin olive oil has soared from €2.40 to €2.70 a kilogramme, according to Spanish olive oil federation Infaoliva. Prices are expected to rise as much as €0.50 (50 cents) a litre in Spain and virgin olive oil futures for September are at their highest price since June 2013. Spanish oil is mainly exported to France, Portugal and Italy. The Italians produce 15 per cent of world output, the second largest producer in the world, and Greece 13 per cent of world market share. This article has been amended for clarity. http://blogs.ft.com/ftdata/2014/09/23/salad-days-are-over-for-med-diet-followers/
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23/9/2014
Salad days are over for Med diet followers | FT Data
Posted in Data, Economics, Europe, Markets, Spain | Permalink
http://blogs.ft.com/ftdata/2014/09/23/salad-days-are-over-for-med-diet-followers/
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