Olive Oil is expensive or cheap? Let’s analyze its price

Many people complain that extra virgin olive oil is expensive. We’ve had historic olive oil prices for several years not seen before, but is extra virgin olive oil expensive? or is it still cheap? Should we buy other types of oils or fats? Let’s take a critical look at extra virgin olive oil and compare it to other vegetable oils and fats.

If your health is more important to you and you want to discover the world of extra virgin olive oil, in our shop in Las Rozas in Madrid and online shop you can buy the best olive oils in Spain: olive oil from Baena, Jaén, Sierra Magina, Sierra de Cazorla, Priego de Córdoba, Toledo and the best brands: Oro Bailen, Segorbe Nostrum, Casas Hualdo, Oro del Desierto, etc.

We recommend that you also read: Benefits of olive oil.

The price of olive oil rises

The price of extra virgin olive oil is one of the most expensive. If we buy it with other oils such as sunflower oil, it can double, triple or quadruple depending on the year. Bear in mind that depending on many factors, the price of olive oil varies. Normally it has varied between three and four years. In recent years, the price of olive oil has been set at historically high prices. other years it has reached prices that were close to other oils such as sunflower oil.

Therefore, if we compare the price of a litre of extra virgin olive oil with a litre of another type of oil, olive oil is the most expensive of all. If we look at it from the point of view of health, olive oil is the cheapest of all.

Olive oil campaign 2016-17

The last olive oil campaigns of all the producing countries have gone down. This has been one of the factors determining the rise in price, the lower the supply of the product, the higher the price. In the 2016-17 season, Spain produced 1,282,000 tonnes of olive oil, 9% less than the average for the last six seasons. Other producing countries such as Italy reduced their harvest by 60%, Italy has not raised its head with olive oil production for many years now. Greece saw its harvest reduced by 44% and Tunisia by 29%. Together with all the producer countries, the fall in the last season was 20%.

The drop in olive oil production is due to external factors in the hands of man. Scarcer weather conditions, rainfall that has not fallen at the right time, frost and the same age of the olive tree (one year produces a lot and the other not).

Another of the determining factors has been the increase in world consumption. With a greater concern for health and the new tendency to take care of oneself, the consumption of olive oil has been growing for years. With the drop in supply and the increase in consumption, the price of olive oil has increased threefold.

The last and determining factor is speculation. The large packagers retain large volumes of olive oil and release them at the right time to manage their speculative objectives.

Photo 1: Olive stone of the museum of Baena

Let’s compare the price of olive oil with other products

Let’s compare extra virgin olive oil with other products and services of everyday life, for example, with the coffee that many of us take in the bar next to the office in the morning, or in the mid-morning break. This is usually around 1.30 euros. In addition, if we accompany the coffee with some toast or boll, this can go up to 3 euros. Putting that we take it every day and putting on average that the month has thirty days, only coffee would cost us about 40 euros a month, if it has been accompanied with toast, the sum would reach up to 90 euros. Another example would be the beer for after work, which we could find for about two euros. If we take this every day, the total cost could go up to 60 euros.

If an average large family consumes a carafe that at current prices is around 23 euros. Olive oil is quite cheap compared to other products of daily life.

Now let’s compare the price based on the calories of the oil. 100 grams of olive oil give you almost 900 calories, and to compare with carbohydrates, 100 grams of carbohydrates, are about 400 calories. Therefore, about 200 grams of carbohydrates are equivalent to 100 grams of oil, that is, the oil gives you twice as many calories. If a kilogram of pasta usually costs around 2.5 euros, and the kilo of the price of the oil is around 3 or 4 euros, the oil would therefore cost around 20 or 30 percent cheaper than pasta.

Therefore, if we look at extra virgin olive oil from this point of view, it is very cheap.

Benefits of extra virgin olive oil

Let’s leave the monetary part and look at the healthy part and all the benefits of a good extra virgin olive oil. Olive oil as fat is essential for the proper functioning of our body, we must include it compulsorily in our diet, but as we are going to acquire liposoluble vitamins.

The extra virgin olive oil is not only a fat, the extra virgin contains antioxidants, vitamins and other natural compounds that all of them are included as minor components that provide an infinity of benefits for our health. The benefits of olive oil are very diverse; it protects us against cardiovascular diseases, reduces LDL, the so-called bad cholesterol and increases HDL, the so-called good, has anti-inflammatory properties, helps us lose weight, delays brain degeneration, prevents us from numerous cancers, and so on. In addition, with the progress of their knowledge, researchers are discovering new properties beneficial to health. The extra virgin olive oil is a true functional food that cannot be substituted by another oil or fat.

Extra virgin olive oil is a product of enormous quality, an emblem of our Spanish and Mediterranean diet and a food that has been declared by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Olive oil is versatile

Versatility is a word that should accompany extra virgin olive oil. The oil has an infinity of uses. One of its most common uses outside the kitchen is to make a multitude of cosmetic products: anti-ageing creams, regenerators, shampoos, soaps, hand creams, etc.

Olive oil and the economic chain

To defend the culture of olive oil, is to defend the economy and development of our country, is to fix the population in rural areas and their development. How many jobs, companies and villages depend on olive oil.

In the end, olive oil drags an economic chain that favours the development of our country. Villages without employment and without future possibilities are depopulated until they reach abandonment. Villages even with a great historical heritage, which can be ruined by the action of time and lack of maintenance.

The culture of olive oil

Enjoy the different varieties of extra virgin olive oil, arbequina, picual, cornicabra, empeltre… or from different parts of Spain; Baena, Bajo Aragón, Jaén, Priego de Córdoba, Sierra de Cazorla, Sierra Magina, each with its own aroma and taste. Marinating each dish with an olive oil, this can only be achieved with a real extra virgin olive oil.

Therefore, we can be sure that although extra virgin olive oil has risen in recent years, it is still a cheap product and it is ignorance that makes us think that it is expensive and does not deserve to pay for it. We should never switch to another oil or fat.

Source

Olive oil times. www.oliveoiltimes.com