Olive Oil Trade

Spain and Italy are not only the main producers of olive oil, but also the biggest exporters (with percentages of 42% and 35% respectively, in 2004). The third most important exporter is Tunisia that is also ranked fifth as a producer. Between the four-year-periods of 1990/1993 and 2001/2004 the value of world exports of olive oil increased by 84% (in the same period the bulk of production increased by 43%). Both Spanish and Italian exports increased, as far as value is regarded. More than world exports (99% and 167% respectively), their market share increased as well (and more so for Italy). Among other major exporters, exports of olive oil decreased in Greece (- 29%) and France (- 70%), while there hasn’t been any important change in Tunisia, where they, however, show great variability. Considerable increases were recorded between 1990/1993 and 2001/2004 in Syria, Turkey, Portugal, Jordan and Israel. Finally even countries that don’t produce olive oil such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Saudy Arabia have seen significant export increases.
As expected, olive oil imports are less concentrated than exports. Italy, the second major exporter of olive oil, is at the same time the main importer, with a share of 40% of the value of world imports up to 2004; other major import countries are the U.S.A. (15% of the world's imports), France (6%), Spain (6%), U.K. (4%), Germany (4%), Portugal (4%), Japan (3%) and Australia (2%). Olive oil imports increased by 91% between 1990/1993 and 2001/2004. Among main importers, in the countries where olive oil is not traditionally used (such as the U.S.A., Germany, the U.K., Japan and Australia) import increases are much more evident than in countries where olive oil is part of the traditional diet (as Italy, France and Spain). In the U.S.A. the third olive oil consumer in the world, imports doubled between 1990/1993 and 2001/2004. In Spain imports show a great variability, something that was different in Italy, and they seem to be negatively connected to the internal production; we may suppose that Spanish imports are mainly led by the need of the internal industry to reach a certain target in the production of olive oil, and that the industry uses internal production first. Most countries act both as exporters and as importers of olive oil; anyway some seem to arbitrate, that is to say oil-traders have interest in re-exporting part of the imported olive oil, after manipulating it (including bottling and melding different kinds of olive oil).