In the coming months, Jaén will control the world marketing of olive oil. It won’t help him

While I write these lines, according to the data of the Ministry of Agriculture, there are 773,596 tons of oil in the country’s oil mills. Practically half, they are in Jaén. There is more oil in the Jienenses oil mills than those that all industrialists, packagers and refiners have.

A lot more. Almost double.

That is what turns Jaén into the gravitational center around which the entire international olive oil industry is going to turn. The big question is if he will know how to take advantage of it.

We’re So Back. Let’s do A quick review. After a pair of nightmare years, at the end of March, the Jiennese wineries accumulated about 369,245 tons. That placed it (with a lot) as the main producer of the world.

Córdoba follows (with 135,865 tons) and Granada (with 74,124). And a little further back are Seville (44,158) and Malaga (13,590). Castilla – La Mancha adds about 81,700 and Extremadura still has about 27,000. There are, if the figures are fine, reserves of 773,593 tons until the oil of the next season arrives.

And we are selling it very fast. As we said a few days ago, According to data from the Information and Food Control Agencyonly in March, “135,000 tons have been marketed (including imports) to an average of 3.62 euros in all categories.” That is, we are selling oil at a rate that is not sustainable: that it will not reach us until the next campaign.

It is not a problem for consumption because everyone knows that the boom of sales and low prices (which are causing losses of more than 270 million euros in the sector) is due to a concatenation of problems and circumstances: The commercial chaos of American tariffsthe delicate financial situation of the producers and the expectations that the price can continue to fall (for the rains).

The situation is problematic because it does not allow companies to clean up their accounts, but cannot be sustained too much in time.

And then? That is the big question. Because, as we see that it has happened in the banana, the Spanish countryside is getting used to passing one problem to the other without any transition period. Given this scenario, most Great challenges of the olive grove They remain in the air.

And it begins to be A bad time not to make the right decisions.

Image | Juan Moreno

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