Why sunflower oil has replaced olive oil as Spain’s main cooking oil

A severe drought has rendered tap water undrinkable in several towns along Spain’s Costa Blanca, forcing holidaymakers and residents to queue at distribution points for bottled water to cover their basic needs. The drought, now in its second year, combined with two years of spring heatwaves, has also reduced olive harvests, causing the price of olive oil, a staple of the Mediterranean diet, to double to a record high. Because of this, for the first time, most cooking in Spanish households is now done using sunflower oil, with olive oil increasingly unaffordable. On the Costa Blanca, the salinity of tap water has increased as water levels have dropped, prompting authorities in some areas to deem it unsafe for drinking or cooking. Bottled water is being distributed free of charge. Overdevelopment, climate change and mass tourism during the summer months, when the population of the popular Mediterranean destination swells, have exacerbated the problem, activists say. In the Marina Alta area, north of the provincial capital Alicante, water consumption soared to 19.67 billion litres in July from 2.3 billion litres in January. There are nearly 38,000 swimming pools in the area, or one for every five inhabitants, according to the National Statistics Institute. The average for all of Spain is one pool per 35 people. The lack of water has forced town councils to ban activities such as filling swimming pools, or watering gardens and washing cars during the daytime. “We’re already entering a climate emergency,” Joan Sala of the environmental group Accio Ecologista-Agro said, citing poor rainfall in the northern part of Alicante province, which received half the usual amount of rain in 2023 and just 10 per cent of average levels so far this year. “There needs to be a bit more foresight, because now in the summer there are a lot more people here than in the winter,” said Fernando Sapena, who owns a restaurant in the Alicante town of Teulada-Moraira specialising in paella. There are households that used to buy only olive oil and for the first time are now buying sunflower oil and olive oil Primitivo Fernandez, Anierac spokesman Meanwhile, Spaniards bought 107 million litres (28.3 million gallons) of all types of olive oil in the first half of 2024 compared with 179 million litres of sunflower oil, according to Spain’s biggest olive oil bottling association, Anierac. Until this year, olive oil has been the most popular cooking oil in Spanish households, accounting for 62 per cent of sales by volume in 2023, while sunflower oil represented almost 34 per cent, according to the Ministry of Agriculture. “It is clear that olive oil consumption is falling in Spain,” said Primitivo Fernandez, spokesman for Anierac. “There are households that used to buy only olive oil and for the first time are now buying sunflower oil and olive oil.” Olive oil sales by volume fell 18 per cent from the first half of 2023, Anierac said. Sunflower oil sales increased by 25 per cent in volume in 2023, according to official data. A bottle of sunflower oil cost an average of €1.86 (US$2.07) a litre in 2023, while pricier olive oil cost upwards of €6 a litre, 50 per cent more than in 2022, official data showed. That means poor households can no longer afford to buy olive oil. At the end of 2023, olive oil was mainly consumed in middle- and upper-middle-class households, a Ministry of Agriculture report on food consumption trends said. One-litre bottles of extra-virgin olive oil were selling for as much as €14.50 in some supermarkets in 2023, putting them in the category of products retailers fit with security tags. In June, the Spanish government cut the value added tax on olive oil to make it more affordable, and this year Spain’s largest supermarket chain, Mercadona, has cut the price of olive oil by 25 per cent to woo back customers, a company source said.

Why sunflower oil has replaced olive oil as Spain’s main cooking oil

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}A severe drought in Spain’s Costa Blanca region is contributing to a spike in olive oil prices that has seen them double to a record high

A severe drought in Spain’s Costa Blanca region is contributing to a spike in olive oil prices that has seen them double to a record high