Conditions ripe in Andalusia for return to peak olive oil production

Spain could return to record levels and pump out about 1.6 million tons of olive oil this season, based on a new forecast that Andalusia alone will make more than 1.3 million tons. According to figures from the Andalusian regional government, its own output will come from an expected – and imminent – harvest of 6.2 million tons of olives, meaning a yield of about 21%. Given these figures and others from Spain’s Olive Oil Agency, it said the outlook for the national harvest was a drop of just 0.3% in the 2011/12 all-time record of just over 1.6 million tons of olive oil.