Olive oil: At what price did the first sale of the season “close” – Who bought it? –

At 10.20 euros per kilo, the first batch of olive oil, for the 2024-25 season, finally “sold out”. At this price, the Agricultural Olive Cooperative of Agioi Apostolos Lakonia sold, which traditionally enters the harvest first at the end of September but also first in the sales arena.

Laconia Cooperative

In particular, last Saturday October 5, 2024, the Agricultural Olive Cooperative of Agioi Apostolos Laconia, held the first open auction for the sale of safflower oil of the new olive growing season. The auction started with a starting price of 9 euros/kg, which ended up at 10.20 euros/kg.

According to OT information, five Greek and Italian manufacturing and marketing companies participated in the process. The final bidder was an Italian processing company, which bought a total of 51 tons of olive oil.

Last season

It is recalled that last season, the first act by the Olive Oil Cooperative of Aghios Apostolos was closed in mid-October, at a price of 9.25 euros per kilo, where a barrel was sold, while just last week, as it sold 40 tons of last year’s olive oil, for 7.25 euros per kilo.

The course of the price is unknown

Although the first close of the year usually sets the tone for how the new olive growing season will move, the course that Greek olive oil will follow this year remains unknown. The price situation will begin to become clearer when the rest of the country’s olive producing regions, with the main variety Koroneiki, will enter the battle of harvest and production.

Excellent quality olive oil

A price that goes hand in hand with the excellent quality of this year’s olive oil in the region, explains to OT that it was 10.20 euros/kg, the president of the Agricultural Olive Cooperative of Agioi Apostolos Panagiotis Batsakis: “Not all years are the same. This year we had no attacks from dako and the quality of the olive fruit as well as the olive oil is excellent. In fact, the yields are excellent, reaching 100 kg of fruit, 18 to 19 kg of olive oil.”

However, as Mr. Batsakis points out, for the price, the production costs should be taken into account, but also the course of the price from the producer until it ends up on the shelf should be recorded, in order to record the profit of the companies and the retail outlets .

The variety of Athinolia

It should be noted that the olive growing season in the region starts from the end of September to the beginning of October, as the climatic conditions and the unique variety of Athinolia, which ripens quickly, allow producers to produce olive oil before the harvest begins in other regions, setting the Cooperative among the first to provide consumers with fresh extra virgin olive oil.

Production at normal levels

This year, according to the first estimates, production in the region, as in most olive-producing regions of the country, will move to normal levels.

Global recovery

Global olive oil production is also showing signs of recovery, which is expected to return to 3 to 3.2 million tons. Accordingly, Greece’s production is estimated to reach 250,000 tons from 150,000 tons last year.

Source: ot.gr