World Production and Consumption

World production of olive oil is constantly increasing, spurred on by considerable increases in production recorded in Spain, the world's leader with its quota of 32% of the global volume (two-year period 2004/05). Italy (28%) and Greece (13%) follow. On the whole, EU-25 weighs with 76% on world total; the main non-Community producers are, in that order, Syria (7%), Tunisia and Turkey (5% each), Morocco (3%).
The extra-EU, non-Mediterranean producers constitute 1% of the world's total. Italy is the biggest consumer of olive oil (30% in 2003, the last year for which there is detailed information available for each country), followed by Spain (19%) and the United States (8% of the world's consumption); other major consumers of olive oil are Greece (7%), Syria (5%), France (4%) and Morocco (3%). The European non-Mediterranean countries, together, constitute 9% of the world's consumption.