Dive Brief:
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The global olive oil supply is set to dip about 8% this year, causing shortages just as demand for the product has begun to skyrocket, according to Food Processing. Heat waves in Greece, flooding in Spain and bacterial damage to groves in Italy are set to badly hurt harvests, hiking prices around the world.
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England will likely take the biggest price hits, and may end up paying a third more for olive oil products by the year's end. A London chef told Food Processing he now pays 13% more for his weekly olive oil supply, coming in at about $32.70 per 1.3 gallons.
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The U.S. produces roughly 2% of the world's olive oil, and Americans have been largely unaffected by the pricing impact. California olive oil farmers' profits have jumped 10% in the past five years.
Dive Insight:
Olive oil is a favorite ingredient of many chefs, including home-based amateurs, because of its irreplaceable taste and ability to improve the flavor of virtually anything that's cooked with it. Consumers continue to clamor for this healthy cooking oil alternative despite years-long speculation that domestic and imported olive oils have been fraudulently labeled as "extra virgin" or "virgin" when they're of a lesser grade.
The U.S. can't make up for the global crop shortage, however. Many California growers are pulling up their olive tree orchards to replace them with more profitable almond trees.
This shortage may cause a rise in olive pomace oil consumption. That oil is pressed from the olive pomace, or seed, after all of the best oil has been extracted. While pomace oils lacks some of the health benefits, taste and aroma of pure olive oil, when it is mixed with virgin oil it regains enough of those qualities to make it suitable in most households, as well as some restaurants and catering establishments.
Since it's likely olive oil prices will continue to climb, there's a good chance that pomace oil will come into its own, simply because it costs a fraction of what extra virgin or virgin olive oil does. Still, the extraction process for olive pomace oil uses solvents and other chemical processes, which may turn off more health-conscious consumers.