The Lowest Olive Harvest in 12 Years
By autumn 2024 the numbers were stark: the world was producing less olive oil than at almost any time in twelve years, as heat hammered grove after grove around the Mediterranean and beyond.
What happened
The International Olive Council reported global olive-oil production at its lowest in about 12 years, with forecasts worsening on the back of extreme heat across southern Europe, Türkiye and Morocco. Two short Spanish harvests had already drained reserves; a hot, dry run across the wider growing world deepened the hole.
Why it matters
This is the supply side of the price story, laid bare. It also marks how global the squeeze has become — not just Spain, but Türkiye and Morocco too, the very countries we’d been highlighting as the rising producers. When the heat hits all of them at once, there is nowhere for the world’s oil to come from.
One bad year is weather; a decade of them is the climate redrawing the olive map. The tree that thrives on heat and drought is finally meeting heat and drought beyond what even it can take — which is exactly why the crop keeps spreading to cooler, newer ground, and why a fair price for honest oil matters more each year. The arithmetic is in the true cost of an olive.
Source, 2024: production figures from the International Olive Council, as reported by BBC News and Olive Oil Times.