Retail
Sections
Highlight
Sections
Highlight
SUR
Malaga
Wednesday, 20 November 2024, 12:48
The price of extra virgin olive oil has recorded its first year-on-year fall in supermarkets in Spain (-2.5%), although it is a much smaller drop than that produced at source (-13%), according to data from consumers' organisation Facua.
The average price per litre of virgin olive oil was 12.50 euros in November 2023, while it currently stands at 12.18 euros, which represents a year-on-year drop of 2.5% (0.32 euros/litre), in a product that has almost quadrupled in price compared to the its cost in 2021.
According to data from the national ministry of agriculture, a litre of extra virgin olive oil was paid at source at 6.45 euros/litre before taxes between 28 October and 3 November 2024, while in the first week of November 2023 it was 7.41 euros/litre.
A year ago, farmers were paid 13% more for the extra virgin olive oil they produced (0.96 cents more per litre) than they are paid today.
Facua pointed out that the IVA sales tax on this product was 5% a year ago, while last July it went to 0% and from 1 October it went up to 2%, a percentage that will be maintained until the end of the year. From 1 January 2025, a super-reduced IVA rate of 4% will be definitively established as it is considered a basic necessity product.
The organisation also pointed out the downward trend in origin can also be seen in virgin olive oil. At the start of November 2023 it was paid at origin at 6.54 euros per litre, while in the first week of November of this year its price was 5.86 euros/litre (0.68 euros less).
Facua called out supermarket chains for maintaining their non-aggression pact with private labels. On Saturday 2 November, Mercadona reduced the price of a litre of extra virgin olive oil of its Hacendado brand from 8.85 to 8.20 euros (0.65 euros less) and a few days later, the majority of large supermarket chains did the same with their own brands to bring prices back to the same level.
On 5 November, Alcampo and Eroski applied an identical reduction in their olive oils to 8.20 euros. In the case of Carrefour, it was on 9 November when it lowered the price to 8.19 euros (one cent less than the rest of its competitors), while Dia reduced its La Almazara del Olivar brand extra virgin olive oil to 8.20 euros on 12 November.
The report shows that Hipercor is the only brand that for the moment maintains a different price from the rest (8.85 euros), as it has not applied the price reduction that the others have done, following Mercadona.
It comes as Facua is still waiting for the ministry of social rights to clarify whether it will open sanctioning proceedings after the complaints it has lodged for margin increases in supermarket chains, the last of which it filed in July for the parallel evolution of the prices of its private labels.
Facua also criticised the national commission for markets and competition (CNMC) which has still not responded to repeated complaints made by the organisation, which it started to send in November last year, and to which it has still not received a reply.
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Publicidad
Reporta un error en esta noticia
Necesitas ser suscriptor para poder votar.