Although greening has started in some areas with the gordal olive, the truth is that the table olive harvesting campaign in Andalusia – an important activity in Cordoba’s agriculture – will not be generalized until mid-September. According to the forecasts of the Asaja Agrarian Organizationsome will be collected 426,000 greening olivesbeing the third consecutive campaign below the average of the last five years, which is around 500,000 tonnes. The last year with a The record harvest of 651,000 tonnes was in 2021before drought began to affect production.
Concretely, according to the data of the Interaceituna final balancelast year produces 391,258 tons of olivesso this year this figure will increase by about 20%. Of these, 103,717 tons were of the chamomile variety; 21,111 of the gordale variety; 181,785 of the hojiblanca variety; 61,331 of the Cáceres variety; 7,977 of the Carrasqueña variety and 15,334 of other minority olive varieties. However, the forecasts are still very early and already warn that, if there is no rain at the beginning of autumn, the expected quantity of olives will decrease considerably.
So, the table olive technician Asaja Seville, José Pedro Guzmán warned that, if the “high heat” continueswith high minimum and maximum temperatures and no rain, the the fruits of the olive grove will be of a size not adapted to greening.
This ties in with the other big problem with this campaign: the lack of manpower“If the weather is not favorable and the shortage of workers is not resolved by the start of the campaign, farmers could choose to allocate olive production to the mill and not to table consumption,” Guzmán says.
He another beautiful challenge of this campaign are the action. With a 23% lower link stock than the previous year, barely 263,000 tonnes, It is “very fair” to supply the market since, let us remember, the olives harvested in September and October are only available in February and March.
Returning to productions, for the olive gordal, Asaja predicted a harvest 34% below average18,000 tons. “This amount will mean that the market’s needs will not be covered and, in fact, we are already seeing distribution pressure on farmers to appropriate this olive,” says Guzmán. In fact, purchasing operations close at 2.4 euros per kilo.
Regarding the chamomileit is planned a harvest “slightly above average”with 148,000 tons, which should end at the end of September. The price of this variety, if everything goes as planned, will be higher than last year, since its production will also have to fill the “gap” left in the market by the Extremadura Carrasqueña variety, which will decrease by more than 36%. (60% less if we add the other variety from the neighboring region, Cáceres).
Finally, at the end of September, the majority variety will begin to be harvested, the blank sheetfor which a harvest of 222,000 tonnes is expected, a 12% below average and whose harvest will extend throughout the month of October.
The costs
As for the quotesFrom Asaja Sevilla they claim that they will not come downbeing similar to those of the previous campaign and which, in any case, could increase due to two factors: the price of olive oil, which remains high, and the low availability of olives which will be repeated this campaign.
On the other hand, the general price increase of the raw materials Also affected farmersbecause during the production process, diesel, fertilizers, fertilizers or herbicides are needed, whose prices have become “more expensive”. Thus, from the sector, they have lamented that “being the last link in the chain, they cannot influence the prices” and, on several occasions, “the final prices do not cover the production costs” assumed by the farmers.
Finally, Asaja announced that “exports will be maintained” at established levels, since outside Spain “they must supply this product”, even if this situation is abnormal in the The American market, where customs duties caused the sector to lose one of its “most important” markets.
From Asaja, they concluded by asking that the situation “be corrected and reversed,” since the American country “ignores” the decisions of the World Trade Organization (WTO). In addition, they have repeatedly asked the Spanish and European Government “immediate correction” of this affair” so that the United States complies with these decisions.
THE relevance of this sector in Cordoba This is also seen in foreign sales. In 2023, the exports of canned olives of the affected province 110.1 million. Of course, this figure remains 7% lower than that recorded in 2022, when the amount achieved through sales of this product abroad was 118.6 million.
