Lisbon, July 23, 2024 (Lusa) - Olive oil production exceeded 1.75 million hectolitres in 2023, which corresponds to the second most productive olive growing season ever, Statistics Portugal (INE) revealed on Tuesday.

INE's 2023 Agricultural Statistics indicate, however, that the high moisture content of the olives made it difficult to extract oil, which resulted in a lower yield of olives at the mill.

By region, the Alentejo accounted for 1.47 million of the 1.75 million hectolitres of olive oil produced, with the data indicating that olive production for oil in this region totalled 972,357 tonnes (out of a total of 1,755,290 tonnes nationwide).

In 2023, there were 374,334 hectares dedicated to the production of olives for oil, of which 201,422 hectares were in the Alentejo, followed by the North with 80,284 hectares.

The figures released today also show that the degree of olive oil self-sufficiency in 2022 was 198.6 % (98.6 percentage points above self-sufficiency), 66.2 p.p. below the figure for 2021.

The country broke the record for the degree of self-sufficiency in 2021, registering the highest figure in the entire available series. There was marked by a sharp rise in the price of olive oil for consumers in 2023.

According to INE estimates released at the end of last year in the ‘Economic Accounts for Agriculture - 2023’, the price of olive oil increased by almost 70% in 2023, with this rise being attributed to the ‘extraordinarily low’ production of the previous campaign, the ‘sharp’ reduction in stocks and the fall in production in Spain.

LT/ADB // ADB.

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