The increase of imports gives a more prominent role to the 6th WOOE

International meeting of buyers and sellers to purchase the olive oil from the 2016/2017 marketing year

With spectacular rises in most purchasing countries, the increase of olive oil importations worldwide, has led to a greater interest in the 6th World Olive Oil Exhibition (WOOE), which will be held at Madrid’s IFEMA, on the 29th and 30th of March 2017. With acquisitions of close to 335.000 tonnes and an increase of 7% compared with the previous olive oil marketing year, the United States is taking the lead within the major foreign markets.

Sales also rose in China, which sold nearly 42.500 tonnes, an increase of 12%; in Canada 42.000 tonnes, a rise of 8%; in Australia: 27.000 tonnes, an increase of 18%; and in Russia, which grew by 4% to almost 24.000 tonnes.

On the contrary, Japan reduced its purchases by nearly 8%, even though the figures are close to 62.000 tonnes. And probably as a consequence of its economic crisis, Brazil also dropped its purchases, with a decrease of 25%, which represents around 50.500 tonnes.

The 2016/2017 olive oil marketing year plays a prominent role in Spain as a consequence of an expected harvest of 1.52 million tonnes, which is slightly higher than the previous and which accounts for more than 50% of global production that, in general, is decreasing. This fact, together with an almost total lack of olive oil stocked from previous years, gives a spectacular role to events such as the WOOE.

According to IOC’s figures, Italy expects a harvest of 243.000 tonnes, nearly half of the previous marketing year. Greece, with 260.000 tonnes, drops its production by 19% and Portugal, with 93.600 tonnes, decreases by 14%. Tunisia, in one of its worst years, reaches 100.000 tonnes, a decrease of 29% compared with the already reduced harvest of the previous marketing year. Morocco: 110.000 tonnes, a decrease of 15% and Algeria with 74.000 tonnes, dropped by 11%. Other countries have also reduced their harvests, such as Jordan by 22% up to 23.000 tonnes, Lebanon by 13% up to 20.000 tonnes, Libya by 14% up to 15.500 tonnes, and Argentina by 18% up to 15.500 tonnes.

On the contrary, there are countries that have big harvests, such as Turkey that have increased by 24% up to 177.000 tonnes, Egypt by 8% up to 27.000 tonnes, Israel by 7% up to 16.000 tonnes and Albania by 5% up to 11.000 tonnes.

WORLD OLIVE OIL EXHIBITION 2017

The success of the previous WOOE was praised by most of the industry’s players who attended the fair and has given a thrust to the developmental work of the next edition. Therefore the 2017 exhibition is expected to have a high presence of organic producers, whose olive oil is in increasing demand from international markets. The WOOE is committed to quality, but also to creativity, and that is why packaging and labeling will play a key role during the next trade fair.