Andalusia’s Olive Harvest Collapses by Half
When the heart of the olive world skips a beat, the whole planet feels it. In 2022 Andalusia — the single biggest source of olive oil on earth — forecast a harvest cut roughly in half.
What happened
After a summer of record heat and a 25% rainfall shortfall, Spain’s 2022/23 olive crop was forecast to fall below one million tonnes, with Andalusia — the world’s largest olive-oil exporting region — expected to produce around 587,000 tonnes, a 49% drop year on year. The press called it the worst drought in living memory for Spain’s olives.
Why it matters
Andalusia isn’t just a producer; it’s the producer — the inland sea of Picual that fills bottles worldwide. Halve its harvest and you don’t get a regional dip; you get a global price shock. This single forecast, more than any other, foretold the record prices of 2023–24.
It’s worth grasping how concentrated this crop is: a huge share of the world’s oil comes from one Spanish region, so its weather is everyone’s price. That concentration is also why the olive’s spread to new lands — the Americas, Australia, North Africa — matters: a more spread-out crop is a more resilient one. For now, when Jaén is thirsty, the world pays.
Sources, autumn 2022: CNN; Olive Oil Times Andalusia harvest forecasts.