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Bologna, Italy: Supermarkets across Spain are reporting increasing thefts of olive oil as demand and prices for “liquid gold” have surged in the Mediterranean.
According to the Financial Times, olive oil is now the most shoplifted product in Spain’s most populous regions, surpassing traditionally sought-after items for petty thieves such as razor blades, alcohol and ham.
Freshly pressed olive oil pours into a vat following the removal of impurities at a mill in the Cabaces district of Tarragona, Spain.Credit: Bloomberg
Some of the perpetrators are believed to be part of a criminal ring that has discovered a profitable fraud reselling olive oil, sometimes adulterated or diluted, on the lucrative global black market.
Extra virgin olive oil, a staple in the Mediterranean diet, used to be commonly found for around €5 a litre ($8.28) but now can cost up to €20.
Extreme weather, drought and the ongoing battle against the Xylella fastidosa bacterium that has been ravaging olive groves for the last decade, have all affected olive oil production.
Global production is expected to fall this year to 2.4 million tonnes, down 18 per cent on the previous year. Spain, Italy and Greece are the top three producers of olive oil in the world.
An olive branch in a grove in Tarragona, Spain.Credit: Bloomberg
Some shops in Spain have resorted to chaining together large five-litre bottles of oil to prevent theft. Others have begun fitting security alarms that have to be removed at the check-out.
Greece has also reported theft of olives in the groves. Panagiotis Tsafaris, an olive producer in the southern Peloponnese peninsula, has been robbed twice, with thieves using sticks at night to rake off the olives.