This is how olive oil is prepared at Beit Hebed Tetura in the Lachish region/photo: Dave Shahar Editing: Amir Katigro
Olive oil has become the most stolen product in supermarkets across Spain, with organized crime gangs stealing the "liquid gold" reselling it on a secret market, according to new figures published in the Guardian.
Some supermarkets have begun chaining large five-liter bottles of olive oil together and locking them on shelves to prevent them from being stolen, while other stores are equipping the bottles with security tags that only staff can remove.
How does it happen in Spain, the world's largest producer of olive oil?
This is because Europe has almost run out of local supplies due to extreme weather that has damaged the olive crop for the second year in a row.
World production is expected to drop to 2.4 million tons, according to the International Olive Council, less than last year's harvest and far less than global demand of about 3 million tons a year.
The shortage of olive oil has hit all the Mediterranean countries, and according to the Financial Times, similar thefts of olive oil are also happening in Greece and Italy.
In Spain, prices have quadrupled in the last four years - buyers who paid less than 5 euros (about NIS 20) for a liter of extra virgin olive oil four years ago now see the same bottle being sold for 14 euros (NIS 55)
Alejandro Allegra, the marketing director of a security company that carried out the survey in supermarkets, said that these thefts are not due to hunger, but are done by organized gangs seeking to profit from the shortage.
Olive growers and companies that press olives and turn them into oil have also become the targets of crimes due to their oil, when it is estimated that tens of thousands of liters of products have been stolen from them.
And meanwhile in Israel
the Ministry of Finance lowered the import duty on olive oil - and compensated the local producers
In December the police in Spain and Italy arrested 11 people and seized more than 5,000 liters of fake olive oil after uncovering an international gang that tried to profit by selling cheap oils by presenting them as belonging to more prestigious brands .
Allegra said it was unusual for an essential food item like olive oil to rank so high on the theft list.
"Olive oil is the only stolen product that can be considered a basic product. In the list of the other most stolen products, Hamon Iberico, luxury cheeses, razors and alcohol star."
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Italy in denial
At the same time, the Italians are also suffering from a culture shock, when the supply of olive oil in the country is reduced, prices are soaring and the average Italian is forced to reduce the use of the favorite nutritional ingredient.
It was reported in the local media that due to the increase in prices, a third of Italians reduced their consumption of olive oil, which is the mainstay of the Mediterranean diet.
But while in Spain they have come to terms with the situation and are taking drastic measures to combat it, Italian producers disagree with the data presented in the survey published on Friday, and say that the situation is different - and that sales of Italian extra virgin olive oil are actually on the rise.
Despite these things, the average Italian consumer has reduced the consumption of olive oil by 30% to 50%, as the average prices in the supermarket rose from 4 Euros (15.50 NIS) to 9 Euros (32 NIS) per bottle, according to a survey conducted by the independent research institute Piepoli , with almost half of the respondents saying that they replace olive oil with cheaper seed oil.
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Olive oil
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