ATHENS Do you want to take your girlfriend to a luxury place? Cover the candlelit dinner in the olive oil separator, laughs the meme on Greek social media.
Jokes tickle the Athenian Chara Stromboulos-Sarria. The staple product of Greece, olive oil, has become family friendly super expensive.
Consumers now pay 12–13 euros for a liter bottle of olive oil. A year ago, the price was five euros.
– Extra virgin olive oil from the new harvest costs more than 20 euros per liter in stores. Who can afford it when the average salary is well over a thousand euros? anticipates Chara Stromboulos-Sarri.
The Stromboulos family uses more than 65 liters of olive oil every year. That’s more than about 37 liters, which is the average consumption of a family of four.
The family orders oil in canisters from a Cretan farmer.
Since the summer, however, the oil tap has had to be tightened.
Food with only a spoonful of olive oil
The Stromboulos no longer eat dishes that absorb a lot of olive oil.
– Cooking has to be relearned, Chara Stromboulos-Sarri states.
By his spouse With Michalis Stromboulos is a practical solution.
– Many families have acquired an air fryer that can fry quickly with just a spoonful of olive oil. It is also on our procurement list, says Michalis Stromboulos.
The Stromboulos are now using more sunflower oil because it is uncertain when they will be able to buy oil from Crete again. Some of the farmers are now delaying the sale of olive oil and calculate that the price will still rise next year.
Some, on the other hand, want to make sure that there is enough oil for their own use, because it would be too expensive to buy it from others.
Extreme weather reduces yields and increases prices
The demand for olive oil exceeds supply. The imbalance has raised producer prices, he says Vassilis Zampounis From the Science Society of Olive Literature.
He estimates that the supply is enough to meet only three quarters of the global demand.
– This is largely due to the fact that due to the drought there is radically less oil coming from Spain, says Vassilis Zampounis.
According to him, Greece produced 350,000 tons of olive oil last year. The estimate for this year is 170,000 tons.
– The mild winter and fierce forest fires have reduced the harvest. Olive trees need cold weather to bloom in spring. Usually, even quantitatively, a good harvest year is followed by a worse one, Zampounis explains.
Producer prices have also increased due to inflation. Energy in particular has become more expensive.
The increase in prices has increased the counterfeiting of olive oil in Greece. It may mean that medium grade oil is sold in canisters as extra virgin olive oil.
Globally adulteration of olive oil is common food fraud.
The Stromboulos family has tested their own olive oil in a laboratory.
– The oil is of top quality, Michalis Stromboulos gloats.
Are Finns three percent “lucky”?
Importer of olive oil, from Nokia Merja Tuominen-Gialitaki buys Finnish olive oil from the same island as the Stromboulos family.
He says that olive oil is only enough for about three percent of the world’s population. Olive oil is therefore the fat of healthy European kitchens.
– Some of my customers say directly that olive oil will be too expensive in the future. Others say that if a liter of olive oil and a kilo of meat cost the same, then the oil will last longer, so let’s reduce the meat, Merja Tuominen-Gialitaki describes.
He believes that the increase in the price of olive oil in Finnish food markets will show itself with a delay. Many importers have long contracts, during which the price may not be affected.
How long olive oil prices will continue to rise worries all of Greece.
– We wonder if this is temporary or permanent due to the climate crisis, Chara Stromboulos-Sarri summarizes the situation.