The price of oil these days ..wow…

Not crude oil… Olive oil!

A L bottle of the nice stuff from Lidl… Was always only a few quid… Went 2 weeks ago and it was £6.99….

Went yesterday.. £7.49…

Wowsers…

Is there an olive shortage or something?

DrP

Is there an olive shortage or something?

A disease is wiping out huge swathes of olive groves. Its a bacteria and effects about 300 other species too including lavender, cherry and rosemary so lots of shortages in prospect although olive oil will be the most noticeable

Ok… I googled!

Producers are grappling with major supply and demand issues. This year, the International Olive Council expects that just under 2.3 million tonnes of olives will be produced – slightly down from last year’s yield of 2.5 million tonnes, and significantly lower than the 3.4 million tonnes produced in 2022.

DrP

I’ve switched to rape seed oil, much cheaper and still low in saturated fat, although lacking in polyphenols.

… but banned in Europe (I think) because of concerns about the Erucic acid content?

I get the fancy rape seed oil too…. But I think it’s a bit TOO flavoured for normal frying… Prefer basic veg oil (which, I know, is rape too) or light olive oil…

Woe is me…!

DrP

In the supermarket last week, chap picks up the same t-bags I’m getting.

They’re now £8 for 210, when they use to be £5 for 240 – “gone up again I say”.

“Yes”, he replies, “now go see the price of olive oil”.

I did need some, bloody hell – although it made the choice easier, no point buying no-name when it’s almost the price of the better stuff.

I expect many food stuff prices will rise in the coming months with the dire weather a fair chunk of Europe has had. Poor crop yields etc

Old news, as in was all over the news last week

Have you seen the price of AdBlue though, that has halved !

I think olive oil was already one of the most faked food stuffs – I imagine fraudulent labelling will be off the scale soon. Although plenty of other issues – most sunflower oil comes from Ukraine for instance so I expect all cooking oils will get more expensive as shortages of one product will push up the demand for others.

Have you seen the price of AdBlue though, that has halved !

Not sure I’d recommend it as a salad dressing though

One of the reasons rape seed oil is not popular in Europe is due to a shocking incident years ago when   the oil was contaminated.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toxic_oil_syndrome

Even today in Spain, they don’t really use it but they do grow it. I only found this it last month when looking at field of it south of Madrid. It’s staggering the number of deaths and no surprise that consumer confidence never returned.

Another issue affecting the production of olive oil is the incredibly warm weather and subsequent droughts in Spain.  Over the last 2 years it has affected olive trees and the growth of the olives. It’s been widely reported even here

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-62707435

Or friends in Spain have been telling us about the increasing cost. It’s 2-3x normal price at the moment and as they use so much of it, it’s a huge existential issue there

Farmfoods do tetley t bags, £1.19 for 72.  Subscribe to their emails to get weekly offers

most sunflower oil comes from Ukraine

No. It comes from sunflowers, surely?

Is there an olive shortage or something?

Olive groves in Spain are really suffering from a prolonged drought. The olives that they are farming are about half the size of normal.

This is only the start – climate change is going to completely screw all manner of crop production. Grapes (for wine), coffee, olives, cocoa – prices are all going to go through the roof.

It’s insane. As mentioned there’s the harvest issue but also something else that affected imports.

Our next door neighbours own a farm in Spain. Their crops are Olives, Almonds and Oranges. All have been affected by droughts and really high temperatures and the yield has been very low.

However we use Rape seed oil and the oil seed rape crop hasn’t been doing too well either due to flooding and poor yields.

All due to climate change imo.

Farmfoods do tetley t bags, £1.19 for 72.  Subscribe to their emails to get weekly offers

Known as Tetley Shavings in our house.

Scottish Blend tea bags for Scottish Water 🙂

They’re now £8 for 210, when they use to be £5 for 240 – “gone up again I say”.

“Yes”, he replies, “now go see the price of olive oil”.

This is the context in which Sunak has just called a general election, hoping that the slightly lower latest inflation figures will give the tories a boost 😀

I was lucky I guess! Over the winter our little local co-op put some Fillipo Berio EV olive oil 500ml bottles up for £1.something as they’d gone cloudy in the cold store room. Needless to say I bought the lot. Not a lifetime supply but staves off the need to pay a fortune for a while.

It’s a slippery slope

Bought some olive oil from a press in Umbria the other week. 35€ for a litre which is madness but you could drink it straight from the bottle.

Needles to say, it won’t be used in the frying pan!

Spain / southern europe has been in drought for years now.  Hence reduced olive production.  climate change?  Looks like it to me.

Get used to it – a lot of fresh veg is also going to be in shortage as a result of this

Not foodstuffs related, but has anyone had their car aircon regassed recently? Mine just cost £236! The car’s a 19 plate, and apparently the gas used is less efficient than the old refrigerants, doesn’t last as long, and is more expensive. 🤷🏼

@DrP

There was a local grower with his own trees selling it in 5litre containers, 15metres from the finish line in Cres…I got 10 litres… The supermarket has a great selection too… So, back in 2025 to get oiled up?

has anyone had their car aircon regassed recently? Mine just cost £236!

Seems a bit steep. ATS will do it for £130, though there’s a Groupon offer on at the moment for £97.

the gas used is less efficient than the old refrigerants, doesn’t last as long, and is more expensive.

The old gases were incredibly environmentally harmful

something else that affected imports

Even my friends in Murcia are complaining about the price of Olive oil. And they use a bit more than us.