The Spanish Association for the Industry and Internacional Trading of Olive Oil (ASOLIVA) has made public the forecasts for next season’s crop. According to this source, the production of olive oil in Spain will be around 1.3 million tonnes for the 2009/2010 period.

Similarly, the Confederation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Spain has placed their estimates for this very same period at 1.25 million tonnes.

These figures reinforce the position of global leadership of Spain's olive oil production, well ahead of other producing countries such as Italy (with an estimated production of 300 000 tonnes) or Greece (280 000 tonnes)

World production of olive oil will reach 2.7 million tons during the 2008/2009 season, more than the 2.6 million tons produced the previous season, stated the spokesman for the International Oil Counsel (IOC).

The IOC, headquartered in Madrid, estimates olive oil global reserves at 645,000 tons through the end of September 2008. Its chief economist, Gerard Brousse, foresees that the world consumption will continue rising to 2.9 million tons during the 2008-2009 season, compared to 2.8 million the previous season.

Brousse stated that he expects world production to increase gradually over the coming years, because of the maturing olive trees in several countries that planted them in the last decade, mainly Argentina, Peru and Australia.

“We also expect consumption to grow gradually during the next years” Brousse said, who foresees exports growing this season, starting November the 1st , to 650,000 tons compared 560,000 due to a weaker euro.

In Spain, the worlds # 1 producer of olive oil , the official forecasts estimate that the current season will reach 1.152 million tons, slightly less than the 1.26 million produced last year.