No rain in Spain ... so olive oil price hits a 9-year high

THE cost of dressing your salad is about to get even more expensive after the price of olive oil reached a nine-year high.

Spain, the world’s largest producer, said a poor harvest caused by a hot and dry spring had caused the biggest spike since 2006.

Analysts said stocks were ‘critically low’ with prices leaping by five per cent last week alone to £2,730 per metric ton.

So far British shoppers have been shielded from price rises because of competition from discount retailers such as Lidl. But even they may now be forced to pass on increases following the problems with European producers.

The average retail price of a litre of extra virgin olive oil rose from £6.32 in December to £6.95 this month, according to trade journal the Grocer.

More increases are on now the way, said Hamburg-based industry researcher Oil World. It warned that a very hot spring and summer across the Mediterranean has ravaged the Spanish harvest in the olive growing belt.

Exports from the country were 380,000 tons in the first five months of the year – a drop of 27 per cent in a year.

Food analyst Lamine Lahouasnia called it ‘concerning acceleration’. She said: ‘The supply shortages as a result of the drought, and particularly under-production in Spain, have filtered through to the marketplace.’

Previous shortages have happened in Greece and Italy, where olive oil prices have hit a ten-year high.

In the southern Italian state of Puglia a bacteria known as ‘olive ebola’ has caused a 35 per cent drop in production in a year.

According to the European Commission the disease, called xylella fastidiosa, has infected 10 per cent of the 11million trees in the region of Lecce.

Walter Zanre, boss of high street brand Filippo Berio, has already warned that oil may have to be rationed among consumers.