prepares

AEMET prepares for “the highest hydrometeorological impacts in the world”

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As said Kevin Killeen“February is the worst month of the year, but it is an honest month.” And February 2026 is no exception in its honesty: the models gave historic rainfall throughout the Atlantic coast and the south of the peninsula and the rainfall is already here. The jet stream is going to pass over us so “constant and uniform” throughout the week. But it is not just the “concatenation of storms generated” by this, it is that “they are going to be fed with high moisture content” that comes directly from the Gulf of Mexico. What would have been excellent news three years ago has become a huge problem: this succession of storms arrives at a time when the soil cannot absorb even one more drop. A truly exceptional accumulation. To land the data, the latest models accumulated dan for this week of more than 100-150mm and up to 300 in areas of Galicia, Extremadura and Andalusia. In the case of Andalusia, in fact, the situation will be very complicated due to the extension of the Guadalquivir valley and the composition of its soil. More than 200mm are expected at the head of the river and a homogeneous average of 100mm in the basin. That, added to the fact that “The soil is clay and its use is agricultural.“, the filtration is very scarce. This has turned the flooding of the rivers and streams in the Guadalquivir basin and adjacent areas (such as the Guadalete or the Mediterranean basins of Granada) into a ticking bomb. “The highest hydrometeorological impacts in the world”. As Martín León explainedis not a figure of speech, it is an enormous risk: the highest impacts in the world are expected. In fact, as the hours pass, the predictions they seem to get worse and floods, overflows and landslides seem inevitable. The first symptoms of flooding, in fact, have already been detected in Andalusia via satellite. How normal is this? To emphasize that we are not facing a normal situation, it is enough to take a look at the ECMWF EFIthe index that measures how extreme the atmospheric phenomena are: the entire south-southwest of the peninsula is in red, the highest level. Rain on wet. But, as I say, that is not the main problem. The main problem is that, after these days of heavy rain, the soil is extremely saturatedthe reservoirs are being forced to drain and the system’s retention capacity is at minimum levels. In mountain areas, water it’s starting to flow directly from the ground. To this we can add that the Pyrenees and the rest of the northern mountains they have a historic snow pack. We are, as all models show, in the middle of a perfect storm. This means that the Hydrographic Confederations will have a lot of work and the problems have only just begun. Special attention will have to be paid to rivers, streams and areas at risk of land displacement. Complicated hours are approaching and any precaution will be insufficient. Image | WXCharts In Xataka | Spain is preparing for a “festival” of storms in February: with more rain than normal and hardly any cold

Spain prepares for a “festival” of Atlantic storms

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After a month of January that has been through water and snow (especially the last few weeks) and in which the Sun has made little appearance, all eyes are on how the month of February will start this Sunday. But a priori, the trend of constant rains seems to continue to prevail throughout the peninsular territory, as AEMET itself has pointed out in its latest bulletin. Boiled. This is undoubtedly the best summary we have for what we will see throughout the month of February, at least until the 22nd, which is what it covers the latest prediction from the national meteorological agency. And the fault is not an isolated front that reaches the peninsula, but a real carousel of fronts that will come and go of the national territory. This means that rainfall throughout the month of February will be above average, and a significant rainfall surplus is expected, especially in the west of the peninsula, Extremadura and the central-southern area. Something similar to what we have had in recent days, so we will not find any changes. They are persistent. As we say, prediction models such as ECMWF point to an atmospheric configuration that opens the door to the continuous arrival of storms from the Atlantic, a scenario that counteracts the initial forecasts that it was going to be a much drier winter than usual. And this change in the forecast completely breaks the trend of the dry environment and it is good news, since the reservoirs begin to fill for spring and summer. Something that is undoubtedly very positive in case half of the year the trend continues to be quite dry and that could be a serious problem if we had not now filled our water reserves. The cold on pause. If the water is the protagonist, the temperature is the supporting actress that surprises, and despite the rain and overcast skies, we are not going to experience extreme cold. Something that agrees with what the AEMET pointed out when seeing that we have been there for three years (for now) without a great cold wave throughout Spain. That is why normal temperatures or slightly above the historical average are expected, and without severe frosts. This is because the Atlantic air flow, being oceanic and humid, usually tempers the environment, avoiding the drastic drops in thermometers typical of continental or Siberian air inlets. In the long term. These predictions are made with the ECMWF models with their weekly maps and clearly show the persistence of low pressures surrounding the peninsula until the middle of the month. But in the long term everything can end up changing and give a very different prognosis. Although it is true that combining it with ICON and other global models reinforces the instability forecast, which increases the reliability of this prediction throughout the month of February. In Xataka | We have always believed that London is very rainy and that Barcelona is not. The only problem is that it’s a lie

While Silicon Valley dreams of servers in orbit, Russia prepares a nuclear reactor on lunar soil

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Until recently, the space race was about seeing who could get there first. Today, the question is different: who will be able to turn on the light on the Moon? While companies like Google or Nvidia imagine satellites loaded with computers for their Artificial Intelligence, Russia has hit the table with a much more earthly (or lunar) plan: installing a small nuclear power plant on the surface of our satellite. A reactor by 2036. The Russian space corporation, Roscosmos, has signed a state contract with the aerospace company NPO Lavochkin to develop a lunar nuclear power plant. According to Reutersthe deadline marked in the contract is 2036. However, the political times are much more aggressive: Yury Borisov, head of Roscosmos, has placed the real operational window between 2033 and 2035. Although official statements sometimes avoid the word “nuclear” directly, project participants dispel any doubts, the Kurchatov Institute (a leader in nuclear research in Russia) and Rosatom (the state atomic flagship company) are in charge. As the Interfax media points outthe objective is to power the infrastructure of the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), a joint project with China that seeks to move from “round trip” missions to a permanent human presence. But why what nuclear? A colony on the Moon faces nights that last 14 Earth days. During that time, the frigid temperatures and lack of light make the solar panels useless to keep astronauts alive or power life support systems. Mikhail Kovalchuk, head of the Kurchatov Institute, he explained in an interview with the Russian agency TASS that Russia must “run forward.” According to this medium, the country seeks to consolidate its leadership through the “Atomic Project 2.0”, which includes new generation reactors and closed cycle systems. It’s not just about science; Russia admits that partners like China and India have learned a lot from them and are now direct competitors. Eyes in the sky: preparing the ground. For the Russian reactor to reach the Moon, Moscow is already preparing the logistics. According to another TASS statementRussia plans to launch 52 satellites from the Vostochny cosmodrome. Among them, the Aist-2T stands out, capable of creating 3D models of the lunar terrain and monitoring emergency situations. It is the necessary infrastructure so that the “lunar atom” does not suffer the same fate as the failed Luna-25 probe in 2023. The Moscow-Beijing axis: a long-range alliance. This deployment is not a solitary effort. As Interfax detailsRussia and China formalized their ambition in May 2024 with a memorandum of cooperation for the joint construction of this nuclear plant. They are not starting from scratch: both countries presented a roadmap in 2021 that includes five joint missions to deploy modules in lunar orbit and surface. While Russia brings its historical advantage in space nuclear facilities, China provides the scientific capacity and resources for the ILRS Station to be permanently inhabited from 2030. The board of the new Cold War. Washington has not stood idly by in the face of the Russian-Chinese alliance. NASA has received a clear directive from the current administration, in which they state that They need a reactor on the Moon by 2030. “We are in a race with China,” said Sean Duffy, Secretary of Transportation and who has led this directive. The background of this urgency is not only prestige, but the control of strategic resources. The Moon is the great deposit of Helium-3, an extremely rare isotope that is emerging as the “fuel of the future” for nuclear fusion. The White House’s fear is that if the alliance between Russia and China comes sooner, they will be able to declare “exclusion zones,” blocking access to this isotope and other essential metals for the technology industry. Faced with this threat, the US has increased the power of its nuclear project from the original 40 kW to a minimum power of 100 kW. Infrastructure over prestige. The space race of the 21st century has ceased to be a question of prestige and has become a question of infrastructure. While Big Tech tries to solve its energy limits with promises of servers in orbitRussia and China have opted for the pragmatism of the reactor on solid, but lunar, soil. Image| freepik Xataka | The race to bring data centers to space promises a lot. Physics says otherwise

It reaches almost 10% of the market when Microsoft prepares to retire Windows 10

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Microsoft prepares to close the Windows 10 cycle. On October 14, 2025 will stop receiving security updatesa decision that places Millions of teams In a vulnerable scenario. Without those patches, any discovered failure could be exploited, something that worries both in the domestic and business. We do not talk about a minor recommendation, but about a change that affects the installed base of more numerous computers on the planet. The movement has put many users in the face of a complex dilemma. Migrate to Windows 11 It seems the logical path, but it is not always possible without going through the box. The system requires hardware compatible with technologies such as TPM 2.0 and a generation of relatively modern processors. Those who do not meet these criteria are forced to maintain Windows 10 No support or directly renew your PC, Although in some Microsoft markets have enabled exceptions that allow to extend one more year the reception of updates if certain conditions are met. What is happening with Windows 7 in the middle of 2025 September 2025 He brought an unexpected surprise. According to Statcounter records, Windows 10 decreased to 40.5% of the market, its lowest level since November 2017. At the same time, Windows 11 was headed with 48.9%confirming that the generational relief is underway. So far, evolution seems logical, except for a detail that especially caught attention. That detail is Windows 7. The system that was left without support in 2020 and that he even saw his update program extended in 2023 reappeared strongly. In a matter of weeks, it went from fees close to 3% to register 9.61% in September. The magnitude of the jump makes it difficult to imagine mass migrations towards such an old software, but the numbers are there. Before drawing precipitated conclusions, remember how these statistics are built. Statcounter does not access the Microsoft telemetrythe only one capable of offering exact figures. Your methodology is based In a code installed by more than 1.5 million web pages distributed throughout the world. Each visit counts which operating and browser system has been used, so that the percentages result from millions of daily interactions with third -party sites. This is an approach offers a very wide sample, but it is still a sampling. Statcounter ensures that it eliminates bots traffic and adjusts certain technical parameters such as Chrome pre -demand. The September graph leaves an obvious unknown. Windows 7 suddenly appears with a weight that I did not have in the previous months, which breaks the descending trajectory that It seemed definitive. What is behind that change? With the information available, it should only be recognized that there is no clear response and that any attempt of explanation would be speculative. The transition to Windows 11 is marked by security, and in that field the nuances matter. Microsoft repeats that maintaining a system without support is an exhibition, although it is also aware that the change is not always immediate. Therefore, together with the announcement of the end of Windows 10, it introduced mechanisms to give users a margin. Consequently, two ways have been established. For domestic users, At least in the European Unionthere is the possibility of receiving for a year more security updates when associating the equipment With a Microsoft account. Both in the particular and business field, the option of subscribing to the program of Extended security updateswhich guarantees up to three additional years of patches. These measures do not change the final horizon, but allow migration to a supported version. Ultimately, it is the users themselves who must assess what to do with their teams. Some will stretch Windows 10 as long as that extension lasts, others will make the leap to Windows 11 and there will be those who even consider alternatives outside the Microsoft ecosystem. Statistics offer a global photograph, but each case has its own nuances. The question is open: how will you manage the end of Windows 10? Images | Mendhak In Xataka | Google believes to have the key to compete with Windows, Linux and macOS in laptops. That key is called Android

The US government prepares a law that threatens death its business abroad

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The strip and loosen of Nvidia and the US government has no end. The soap opera starring the GPU for artificial intelligence (AI) H20 It has finished, but another one is already taking shape. In the middle of last April the US Department of Commerce imposed new restrictions to The export to China of this chipwhat in practice caused that it stop arriving at the Chinese clients of this company. Three months later and after arduous negotiations Nvidia got the license again I needed to sell the H20 GPU in China. Currently Chinese clients from Nvidia They are not buying this chip Because the administration of the cyberspace of China (CAC), which is the main Internet regulatory body in this country, This GPU is thoroughly investigating Because he suspects that he could incorporate a rear door of difficult location by Chinese experts. Nvidia has denied it, but it seems that this GPU is sentenced in China. Be as currently the company led by Jensen Huang has a major problem. And he doesn’t have it in China. He has it in the US. Last Tuesday, American legislators presented a bill in which they propose to demand chips designers for the US to prioritize the national orders of these GPU before giving them to foreign buyers. However, this is not all. In addition, this bill explicitly proposes that exports of the highest range IA GPUs are denied. If this initiative thrives the business of Nvidia, AMD and other US companies abroad will suffer a lot. The Trump administration has changed strategy about China and Nvidia As expected, Nvidia has not stayed with crossed hands. A spokesman for this company has made the following statement to Tom’s hardware: “Our sales to customers around the world do not deprive the US customers. The Chinese chips industry has advanced a lot during the last five years, and will surely continue to do so From one thing we can be sure: everything that is happening in the US has China as a backdrop. The Chinese industry of integrated circuits has advanced a lot during the last five years, and certainly will continue to do so. It is very likely that in 2026 Chinese manufacturers have their own extreme ultraviolet lithography equipment (UVE). And currently Huawei, Moore Threads, Cambricon Technologies and other Chinese companies have GPU for some scenarios They compete with the Nvidia and AMD chips. The independence of the Chinese semiconductor industry is underway. The best output given this juncture for the US is none other than to deliver to China in a controlled way advanced chips for AI, but less powerful than the most capable that design Nvidia, AMD or brains. In this way this Asian country may relax a bit its ambition for development and independence. This is exactly what the Trump administration is doing by allowing Nvidia to give your GPU your H20 again, as Chris Miller holdsthe author of ‘The chips war’in his Newsletter. The Chinese government He is urging Chinese companies that are dedicated to the development of large models of AI to use in their servers integrated circuits of Chinese origin, so it is reasonable to anticipate that Nvidia will gradually lose presence in China. Even so, this company will continue with good health because His robustness in the global market It is undeniable. What is not clear is what will happen if the bill we have spoken a few lines outstands. The US is interested in continuing to sell its chips abroad, but this initiative defends that the best exclusively should be left. China already knows what this measure implies, but now it is possible that other countries also try it. Even if they are US allies. Image | Gage Skidmore | Nvidia More information | Tom’s hardware In Xataka | Ten Chinese companies in Chips and IA have allied with a common goal: to put an end to the domain of Nvidia

China prepares one of the biggest military parades in history. It will be, above all, a warning to the world

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On September 3, Beijing will convert Tiananmen Square in the epicenter of an unprecedented demonstration of force. China will organize a military parade massive to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. In addition, it will also be the perfect time to show the military capacities acquired under the mandate of Xi Jinping. An event of magnitudes. More than 10,000 military personnel, a hundred aircraft and several hundred land vehicles will participate in A 70 -minute ceremony which promises to be the largest Chinese armament exhibition since 2019. The parade will include 45 troops formations and will present more than 100 different types of military equipment, all national production and active duty. We don’t know everything. Chinese authorities have confirmed that a great proportion of the weapons will be completely new. Among the novelties are hypersonic missiles capable of traveling five times the speed of sound, antimile defense systems, directed energy weapons, autonomous combat drones and electronic warfare systems. According to Major general Wu Zeke, deputy director in charge of the military parade, these weapons “will fully demonstrate the solid capacity of our army to adapt to technological advances and win future wars.” A message for another recipient. Although officially commemorates the victory over Japan, the parade has a strategic objective between the lines: show the United States and its allies in the Pacific The new Chinese military capacity. The analysts They expect See new anti-buque missile models such as YJ-15, YJ-17, YJ-19 E YJ-20, specifically designed to neutralize carriers and deny access to Western naval forces in the region. Taiwan in the spotlight. The arsenal that Beijing will also have direct implications for Taiwan’s future. The new tanks with unmanned turrets and active protection systems would significantly complicate the island’s defense strategy, which is based on mobile and cheap anti -tank weapons. As Point out Sheu Jyh-Shyang, from the Taiwan National Defense and Security Research Institute: “This is not good news for Taiwan.” Putin as guest star. The confirmed presence of Russian President Vladimir Putin with Xi Jinping during the ceremony sends another powerful geopolitical message. Putin already attended the great military parade of China in 2015, when the majority of Western leaders declined the invitation, so it is another step in The alliance between the two countries in front of the West. The backdrop. The military power deployment comes at a time of maximum tension in the Pacific. The popular liberation army has intensified your exercises Simulating blockages and attacks against Taiwan, while systematically denies the operation capacity of US forces in the region. Beijing has promised to reveal more details about the specific weapons that will be shown in the coming weeks. Cover image | Pang Xinglei/Xinhua In Xataka | Deepseek has suggested that Nvidia chips no longer needs. We believe to know who is buying them

Asturias prepares the greatest experiment in Spain to reduce the day

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When the national debate seemed focused on (still stagnant) Reduction of the working day At 37.5 hours a week, Asturias has decided to step on the accelerator. The Principality government has launched the machinery to launch an experiment on the four -day work week in the region, a movement that resurrects one of the Conversations about the future of work in our country. The first step have already taken it. From the regional government They have already tendered The study that will serve as a road map in this ‘experiment’. The objective they have is clear: analyze the viability and The economic impact to implement a 32 week weekly day in the business fabric of the region. A necessary study to be a success. This study, which will have a value of 16,862 eurosan external consultant will be held. In its content, what is going to be collected will be the similar projects that have been made in other regions, with their failures and their mistakes. In this way, we will not try not to fall into the same stone again as other autonomous communities or other regions of the European Union. In addition, it will also identify the key sectors of the Asturian economy where it would be more feasible to apply this reduction in working hours, and especially where there will really be a benefit of having a four -day day. From there, the assessment of unions, employer and company will be collected to have a complete vision of the consequences that this measure can have. When it will be launched. Once the report has been launched in tender, the manager who manages to get him will have a period of three months to be able to collect all this information, so we can easily leave the next year. When you have all this information, it will be when the Government will propose to companies the possibility of joining this initiative. The main focus will be in the private company. Sources from the Ministry of Science, Industry and Employment They have detailed To El País that the objective will be the private company in this experiment. Although they will also analyze the viability in the public company. But what is clear is that participation will be voluntary, as detailed in the agreement signed between the regional government with the employer and the unions. In these same statementsthe Ministry suggests that this model make Asturias one of the first communities to apply this labor model, aspiring to be one of the greatest experiments in Spain in this area. All this because so far the projects that have come forward have focused on very specific areas of a province or have been a failure, as in the case of the Plan of the Ministry of Industry. The great debate: how will affect salary. Logic can mark that a reduction in the number of hours worked It also carries a reduction in monthly salary. But this is something that at the moment is not clarified in the position by the Principality. As they point out, there is a “varied casuistry” and that, in the absence of a national regulation, it is an “issue to negotiate in each labor relationship.” Precisely, the study that has been in charge will be focused on shedding light on how this problem with companies should be solved. There are a history in Spain. To see similar projects we can go to Valencia in the spring of 2023, where the City Council of the capital tested the four -day week turning on Mondays. The results In this case they were very positive, since an improvement in the well -being of employees was evidenced. Although he also had a negative impact on some businesses by losing this habitual clientele of Mondays. Nationally, the Ministry of Industry launched in 2022 With a budget of 10 million euros in grants A plan to reduce working hours. But it was a disaster, since Only 41 industrial SMEs requested participatingand finally, almost two years later, only five companies were approved, reducing the investment to 500,000 euros. In Spain the regulation will still take to arrive. Although the Council of Ministers I already gave green light To the legislative text that would come true to have a 37.5 hours day in Spain, you still have to wait. His passage through Congress is being torpedored, since for the moment does not have enough support To be published in the BOE. Although the reality is that although it seems A substantial changethere are many companies that collect it in their collective agreements and Other EU countries They have a day below what is raised. Images | Annie Spratt Miguel Ángel Sanz In Xataka | Face B of the four -day week: the problems that British essay companies found

ESA prepares for a hypersonic leap. Invictus is his letter to compete with China and the USA on extreme flights

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Just a couple of decades ago, take off from a conventional track and fly five times faster than sound seemed reserved for science fiction. Today, the European Space Agency (ESA) He wants to pave that path with Invictusa Experimental hypersonic platform that could transform the way the old continent accesses space. Invictus is not a missile neither a military plane nor a vertical pitcher. It is an aircraft concept conceived to fly to Mach 5, take off horizontally and return intact to be reused. Its modular structure – you must exchange materials, motors and software – will allow to test very different configurations throughout several campaigns. We are talking about a program funded through instruments such as General support technology program (GSTP) and the Element of Technological Development (Tde) of ESA. The key is to provide Europe with its own technological base on a land dominated by the United States and China. The great enemy is not speed: it is the scoring temperature Reaching Mach 5 does not depend only on engine power. The great obstacle is thermal: friction on the fuselage raises the external temperature to Extreme levels and converts incoming oxygen into a gas that cannot be compressed or used directly. In this sense, Invictus will integrate an engine Early Hydrogen fed, whose thermal exchanger will be able to cool air at more than 1,000 ° C in dozens of milliseconds. “It will provide an invaluable opportunity to test the entire motor flow route, from air intake to the postquemor, at a real scale in an integrated aircraft,” David Perigo, chief engineer of ESA said. Technology does not start from zero. Reaction Engines developed KNOWan atmospheric-aorbital hybrid engine supported in its day by ESA. After the entry in company administration in 2024, part of its team and intellectual property went to Frazer-NASH, which now moves that know-how To Invictus. What were previously laboratory tests will be integrated for the first time into a complete and reusable aircraft, a key step towards European space aircraft. The strategic background is clear: if Invictus demonstrates its viability, Europe could move towards orbital planes capable of carrying out civil and military missions with a difficult rapid and flexibility to match conventional vertical rockets. The Consortium —frazer-NASH in front, together with Spirit Aerosystems and Cranfield University-has 12 months and 7 million euros of initial financing to deliver the complete preliminary design of the vehicle, indispensable step before programming the testing campaigns in flight. The internal calendar points to a first demonstration flight around 2031. While the United States and China compete to dominate hypersonic flight, Europe does not want to stay in the barrier. With Invictus, that spears a clear message: the continent intends to design the future access to space in its own terms. Images | THAT | Frazer-Nash In Xataka | Jeff Bezos’s space company has advanced Spacex in a key milestone to go to the moon and Mars: zero evaporation

The US prepares to bomb the border of Mexico with sterile flies. It will not use genetic engineering, but 1950 technology

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The United States wants to stop the Cochliomyia hominivorax, A fly that when it is in the larval phase causes a parasitic disease that mainly affects cattle (although it can also affect humans). A few days ago we talked about the plan to end her: launch millions of sterile flies to stop their expansion. The funny thing is that they are not going to do it using Genomic editionbut for this they will use a technology ago. X -rays and planes. The objective of this initiative is to stop the expansion of this plague and for this what they are going to do is sterilize millions of flies. As? With A technology that has been using since the 70s To combat this plague: X -rays. After raising the larvae and that they transform into pupae, they are placed inside a metal cylinder that is introduced into a gamma irradiation chamber with a dose of between 40 and 65 gray, enough to reach 95% sterility without compromising their survival. The container (left) that is introduced into the irradiation chamber (right). Fountain Once sterilized, you have to reach the affected areas, in this case the southern Texas and Mexico. To ensure that they arrive in the appropriate phase, the pupae remain at 10 degrees so that their metamorphosis to adults slows down. They are released from airplanes and, when the temperature rises, sterile males emerge. Why not transgenic flies? Sterilization of insects by radiation has decades of proven efficacy. Genetic modification is potentially cheaper and efficientbut it is still in an experimental phase and is not ready for mass production. There is also the issue of regulation, more complicated in this case because it requires approvals from two countries: the United States and Mexico. The current legal framework under which sterile insects are released does not contemplate genetic modification and achieve approval I could take years and cost millions of dollars. The threat. The one known as “Cattle Barrenter” is a devastating species, especially for cattle. The females deposit their eggs in wounds and mucous animals and, when hatching, the larvae begin to feed on the meat, causing injuries that become mortal. According to the head of the American Association of Veterinary Medicine, They can kill a 450 kilos cow in two weeks. This pest affects mainly to countries in South America, but It is not the first time that the United States has to deal with it; In 1966 they already eradicated it and in 2017 there was a small outbreak in the Florida Keys. There is a hurry. Although the reduction of transgenic technique costs sounds attractive, the reality is that there is no time to lose. The boreride worm has reappeared in southern Mexico and, although it has not been detected near the border, from the United States They don’t want to take risks. In addition to the release of sterile flies, other measures will also take controls in the transfer of animals, collaborate with Mexico to improve surveillance and provide traps to catch larvae. Image | PSUBRATY in Pixabay In Xataka | Every week, millions of flies are released on the Valencia Community and, although it does not seem like it, it is a sensational idea

The oil market is so broken that Spain already prepares its great weapon to fix it: remove oil via decree

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They do not run easy times for the olive oil market. Or rather, they run paradoxical times. In recent years, farmers had to deal with bad harvests that raised prices and They punished consumption. Now they enjoy a good campaign that will overcome the 1.4 million tonsbut things are not much better. The prices they charge They have fallen so much that they have left them in a committed situation, with a Great hole In your income. Given that scenario, the government has decided to move and endow A ‘Nuclear button’ That, if necessary, it will allow you to stabilize the market in the 2025-2026 campaign. As? Removing oil if the harvest is very abundant. What happened? That the Ministry of Agriculture wants to anticipate a possible imbalance in the extra virgin olive oil sector. In view of The good prospects Of the 2024-2025 campaign and the fear that this abundance of fruit ends up impacting the Spanish market, the government has launched its administrative machinery to have a tool that allows it to re-may be rebuilt. As? Basically removing oil from the oil mills. Remove olive oil? Exact. The community regulations allow states to activate a “marketing standard” for the olive oil sector that “improves and stabilizes” its market. That general framework moved to Spain with the Royal Decree 84/2021which in turn contemplates that “when the conditions justify it” it is withdrawn as a result of the markets, reserving it for the next campaign or even dedicating it to a different use to that of food. The process, yes, is somewhat more complex and requires that the autonomies and organizations representing the sector be consulted before. And that is precisely what the Ministry of Agriculture has just done: open A public consultation so that those who want to comment on their order for the 2025/2026 campaign can do so. The observations can be sent until next Wednesday. And why do you do it? For the data that arrive from the olive sector itself. Although the crops of 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 were rather Parcas (666,000 and 854,500 tons, respectively), which contributed to the price of olive oil to be triggered in the stores, the current panorama is quite different. It is estimated that the current campaign, which started in October and will end in September, will leave More than 1.4 million of tons. In March the Minister of the Branch, Luis Planas, even He spoke of 1.42 million. There are who is even More optimistic and talks about major figures for the next campaign. And how do prices respond? If in 2023 and 2024, coinciding with the bad harvests, the price of olive oil came to be around nine euros per kilo in the case of the Aove, now, with a generous campaign, that value has been reduced to 3.59 euros. And so It is a problem For farmers. Juan Luis Ávila, from COAG, warned In May that while the consumer pays about six euros for the liter of oil, the producers receive less than 3.5 euros for the AVE, which would be below the cost of production in the olive groves. What is that fall? The million dollar question. Especially since farmers ensure that market prices are not those that should in current circumstances. “The data is overwhelming and alarming, since there is an unjustified lag of more than two euros per kilo between the real price at the origin of olive oil and the value it should have,” He warned in May Miguel Padilla, of the Coordinator of Agriculture and Livestock Organizations, COAG. To reinforce its position, the collective even presented A report which estimated that the Aove should quote 5.55-6.14 euros per kilo in the current campaign, far from what the olivicultores perceive. “Speculation Campa at ease”, regrets UPA General Secretary, Cristóbal Cano, who believes that there should be “a different pricaries in the market, according to the law of supply and demand.” What will the new standard be for? With its new order for the 2025-2026 campaign, the government wants to be prepared to “stabilize” the market with a clear strategy: withdrawing product. From the Ministry they advance, yes, that will only happen “if high production estimates are found that can generate imbalances.” I would be The first time That the Planas department activates the mandatory oil withdrawal mechanism to rebalance the market. What does the sector think? The EFE agency has spoken with several organizations, such as ASAJA, COAG, UPA, UDU or agro-food cooperatives, which the initiative see with good entrance. “It is absolutely essential to have all the prepared machinery. Until now we had not needed, but before a predictable good harvest we have seen the convenience of activating it, as simple as possible, to avoid the sinking of prices,” comment In DCoop. Not everyone is equally optimistic. In Murcia there are producers who They are suspicious that the oil withdrawal from the market to control prices is the effective solution. Images | Government of Castilla-La Mancha (Flickr) and Deoleo In Xataka | More and more giants get into the Andalusian field and in the olive oil industry. The last: Pepsico

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