Better than expected: the US Market for Olive Oil

In 2013, economic growth in the United States seems to become more consistent. The powerful monetary stimulus implemented from the Federal Reserve, on the one hand, is supporting domestic consumption, on the other is favoring the competitiveness of the domestic manufacturing firms due to the weakness of the dollar against other currencies, primarly versus euro (less than 10% during last year). The final result - waiting the "taperig" - is an higher than expected economic growth.
Also the olive oil market seems benefiting of this dynamic. The data on purchases of olive oil in the United States are positive: imports in the first six months of 2013 increased by 15%. The forecast for the next months seem to go in the same direction. If we observe the dynamic of the first 7 suppliers of olive oil (97% of the total purchases), we can deduce interesting news. The Italian exporters, holders of more than half of the US market, have increased their sales by 10%, losing market share, but less than their main European competitors (the spanish exporters -38%).  Among other eurozone countries only the greek exporters have been able to do better, increasing their sales by 67%,  "benefiting" of the austerity policy which saw reduce their internal costs.
In rapid recovery turn out to be the producers of North Africa (Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey too). The exporters of these countries continue to increase their market shares. But the question to ask is, are really products from these countries comparable with those Italians? Or is there such a difference in terms of quality, requiring to call in another way, the Italian olive oil? The U.S. market seems to tell us this: sell better, sell better products, sell even at a higher price .... because the consumers of that country are able to understand the differences and reward the quality! Italian extra virgin olive oil, the product of quality!

Staring at the rising sun.

Dear readers,
the Observatory just opened a window on Japan.

Thanks to the precious, professional and, morevoer, kind collaboration of a great friend of us, the Observatory opened a Japanese version: follow this link to our Japanese blog!

This is a further step along the path of enhancing sustainable olive oil and knowledge, a new service the Observatory is going to provide to its readers.

Right now our Japanese blog presents the translation of our latest post. The idea is to make this window wider, with special contents prepared for this peculiar audience. Japan is not a producing Country, although there's a interesting ferment about olive oil. Other than being one of the World's leading economies, Japan craddles one of the most ancient cultures, that cannot leave us indifferent.

So, keep following us!

Slowdown in global demand? Depends on where!

More than 6 months ago, we pointed out the markets which did not seem to know the crisis: Brazil, China, Poland and Australia. Final data for 2011 seem to justify this claim, with the exception of Australia which has only seen a slowdown in its performance in the last 6 months. We do, however, a brief summary. The year 2011 has shown an increasing global demand for olive oil by almost 9 percent (see table below), reaching $ 4.5 billion.

But while the major world buyers (in the order Italy, USA, France and Germany) confirmed a trend almost similar to the dynamic of the world trend, in just three years Spain has become capable of disappearing from the top ten, losing as many as 6 positions Due to the severe economic crisis that is hitting hard the income of the inhabitants of the Iberian Peninsula.

As announced previously in this special ranking, we find for the first time China, able to grow for the second consecutive year at a dizzying pace (+72% compared to 2010).
But, if the actual low overall weight of China (it has only 3% of world market), on the one hand it forces us to indicate that market as the "market of the future", from the other side it requires us, now, here, and immediately to tell you "attention ladies and gentlemen, listen very well, do you want to make money? The right market for you is the Brazil! "

The real star of 2011 is undoubtedly Brazil. It became the fifth buyer in the world olive oil market, now next to overcome Germany and with a positive trend that seems to know no any stops. Infact, even in 2012 it started with a boom: in the first two months of the year the trend growth rate was 21.6% (compared to the same month last year) with positive forecasts also for the other months of the year.

The main beneficiaries seem to be particularly Spanish and Portuguese companies. The latter have reached a market share of 50% of total Brazilian imports,  even if the strong economic crisis affecting the Iberian Peninsula could encourage the competitors with new and interesting opportunities.