Price Shock in the Kitchen: Olive Oil

Cooking with olive oil keeps getting more expensive, and the culprit is the usual suspect in agricultural woes: climate change. Per the New York Times, global olive oil prices across the world have doubled over the past year. Severe drought across Spain's orchards has caused a 48% drop in the crop's yield, which wildly affects the market, the Washington Post reports. Spain generates half the world's supply in olive oil, making it the top producer globally, as well as the industry's price-setter. Meanwhile, poor weather in Italy, Greece, and Portugal, other top growers, isn't helping the cause. "Consumers are just going to face higher prices," Shawn Addison, the owner of an olive oil wholesaler in California, tells the Times.

Extreme weather conditions that hurt olive production, including drought, wildfires, and soaring temperatures, have seen an uptick in recent years. The US Department of Agriculture estimates that global olive oil production is down a quarter from last year, as well as from the five-year average, while prices are 130% higher than last year. Per the Post, this makes olive oil, now set at a record $9,000 per metric ton, more than 10 times as expensive as crude oil, at $670 per metric ton. (It was about five times as expensive before the pandemic, per Bloomberg.) One tangible example of all this, from the Times: A 750ml bottle of Bertolli's extra-virgin olive oil costs about $11, up from $9 last year.

All of the above has prompted crime waves, with criminal gangs performing heists at farms and factories in Greece and Spain. The New York Post reports that $380,000 of the "liquid gold" was lifted from a warehouse in Greece earlier this month. Consumers must also watch out for a different kind of scam as bottlers seek to lower costs. "With Europe's shortage, the risk level of buying blended and counterfeited extra-virgin olive oil will be extremely high," says Vincent Ricchiuti, founder of Enzo Olive Oil. "We always tell our customers to look for where your olive oil is coming from [and] look for the harvest date." For those who can't foot these extra costs, Real Simple recommends switching over to avocado, flaxseed, almond, or sesame oils, all of which have different health benefits and highlight different flavors in cooking. (Have you tried olive oil in your coffee?)