According to the Spanish agricultural organization COAG (Coordinadora de Organizaciones de Agricultores y Ganaderos), an economic loss by 430 million euros is expected for Andalusian olive oil producers, mainly due to low prices. However, the organization said, should the downward trend continue like this, this figure may double and reach 700 million euros. 



According to the Producers' Organization, producers received an average of 1.76 euros / kg, an amount that does not cover production costs which stand at 2.49 euros per kilo, according to a Study on the Olive Oil Value Chain conducted by the Ministry for Agriculture. 
 
In this regard, the Organization stressed that last year it was possible to "partially mitigate the economic disaster" by activating the mechanism of private storage, which involved an injection of around 65 million euros and raised the price of oil by 26 percent since its launch. 
 


Likewise, COAG recalls the need to amend the current private storage reference prices, which are now outdated as they were settled in the 1996/97 marketing year (1,779 EUR / tonne of extra virgin olive oil and 1,710 € / tonne for virgin oil).