Mercadona slashes price of olive oil to below 7 euros a litre

Mercadona is beginning to squeeze its competitors in what could be the start of a price war, this time downwards, in one of the products that has caused the most headaches for consumers in Spain in recent times: olive oil.

The company headed by Juan Roig has decided to reduce the price of a litre of the so-called "liquid gold" in its suave and intense varieties, both for the one and three litre formats, which are down 0.67 and 2.91 euros respectively. Therefore, the one-litre bottle of these two varieties will now cost 6.95 euros, compared to the 7.62 euros it cost until now. The three-litre container now costs 19.85 euros, compared to 22.76 euros previously.

So far this year, both varieties have been reduced by 25 per cent, according to the company. A reduction that, as they point out, has also been seen in the price of virgin and extra virgin olive oil.

The company announced last July a price cut after the one carried out in February, which meant a cumulative total of more than 1,000 products reduced since the beginning of the year.

This week, the Spanish consumer association Facua launched a new website so that consumers can monitor the daily evolution of the prices of different products, including olive and sunflower oil, where price rises of up to 70 per cent have been detected in just a fortnight.

According to the organisation, in general, when a leading brand - in this case Mercadona, especially in unbranded label products - makes a price change, the rest follow the trend so as not to lose sales momentum, which is why other chains are also expected to make promotions for oil, which according to the latest INE national institute of statistics data, has risen by 38 per cent in the last twelve months.

Its price has tripled since 2021, although in July it experienced a moderation to 5.5 per cent in year-on-year terms, coinciding with the entry into force of the IVA (Spain's sales tax) reduction approved by the government to leave liquid gold at zero per cent as another basic product in the shopping basket.