this post was submitted on 20 Nov 2023
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[–] sergih@feddit.de 32 points 7 months ago (2 children)

8 eur per liter? I havent lived in spain for 2years already but it's crazy that that is the price when Spaij the biggest producer of olive oil in the world, even in Austria now I can get oil for 6€ a liter, and no oil is produced here

[–] _edge@discuss.tchncs.de 27 points 7 months ago

[Austria] and no oil is produced here

Steirischer Γ–lkΓΌrbis: Am I a joke to you?

[–] Miaou@jlai.lu 9 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The olive oil you're buying is probably stuff people in south Europe wouldn't touch, I don't think the comparison applies

[–] QuandaleDingle@lemmy.world 19 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Olive oil??? Freaking olive oil??? Bruh. -_-

edit: I just realized this was in Spain. Makes sense. XD

[–] sv1sjp@lemmy.world 19 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (2 children)

Well in Greece this year, the olive oil is very expensive. I am not sure about Spain but I believe that they are facing similar issues.

[–] bufalo1973@lemmy.ml 10 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Spain is the biggest producer of olive oil in the world. And we use it quite a lot (note: of you haven't tasted it, try bread with some olive oil and tomato).

[–] sv1sjp@lemmy.world 6 points 7 months ago

Aww yes, pure Mediterranean moment! ❀️

[–] devfuuu@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

Heavily consumed in Portugal too. Already bunch of news around about how expensive oil is going to be. Totally the new normal. It's not surprising crops going crazy with weird weather, both too much and sudden rain coupled with crazy drought. Last year we already got similar situation.

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago (5 children)

Honestly, even at Spain you would think they would find something lighter and more concealable. It's like in the US when people were stealing multi-gallon bottles of detergent. If the store owner does decide you're worth going after what are you going to run with that? Price per volume chocolate bars would make more sense. Hell, steak would make more sense.

[–] tryptaminev@feddit.de 15 points 7 months ago (2 children)

Which shows the issue. People aren't stealing out of a profit motive, or "criminal energy". They steal, because they struggle to afford living.

[–] Kusimulkku@lemm.ee 2 points 7 months ago

People steal for both

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 1 points 7 months ago

I don't know, stealing out of necessity would probably lead me to picking a smaller bottle of oil more often. Trying to run out of a store with 20 lb of oil seems to be a more problematic choice.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Detergent was targeted because it has appealing qualities to it and stores weren't putting that much energy in stopping it.

Detergent doesn't spoil or melt like steak or chocolate.

In some markets, it is relatively easy to flip. It was also being used as a way to launder money, since you could ship stolen detergent into Mexico to be sold in Mexico. No one was really tracking detergent shipments into Mexico.

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

People had always said money laundering but I had never heard the explanation until now.

[–] HobbitFoot@thelemmy.club 1 points 7 months ago

Money laundering comes from operating cash based laundromats. This is just a different form.

[–] QuandaleDingle@lemmy.world 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You've got a point there. Perhaps olive oil is an ingredient so beloved in Spain that it would make sense for them? I dunno.

[–] devfuuu@lemmy.world 4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Olive oil is the most essential ingredient to cooking and living around these parts of the world. There's barely any cooking you can do without it. Literally everyone has to have it.

[–] optissima@lemmy.ml 2 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

Well the secret is chugging the full gallon and regurgitating it when you get home, no one suspects a thing!

[–] linearchaos@lemmy.world 2 points 7 months ago

The hard part is making the trip home without gurgitating or crapping yourself

[–] Deceptichum@kbin.social 2 points 7 months ago

One simply needs to douse themselves in a bottle of the oil and nobody will be able to catch them.

It’s ingenious.

[–] bufalo1973@lemmy.ml 1 points 7 months ago

50€/bottle.

And if you find strange using olive oil... Try a salad with olive oil.

[–] autotldr@lemmings.world 9 points 7 months ago

This is the best summary I could come up with:


"We are seeing a major surge in shoplifting," said Ruben Navarro, the CEO of Tu Super supermarket chain, which operates 30 stores in Spain's Andalucia region.

Since September, Tu Super has been chaining large 5-litre bottles of olive oil together and padlocking them to shelves to prevent theft.

STC, a Spanish company providing anti-theft solutions to retailers, saw a 12-fold increase in orders this summer from supermarkets for devices to protect olive oil bottles, managing partner Salvador Canones told Reuters.

While thefts of olives and oil have increased especially, the measures by supermarkets also reflect a broader shoplifting surge.

Spain's top business organisation, CEOE, said there was a 30% increase in repeated thefts targeting retailers in 2022, and a further 12% so far in 2023.

Navarro said thieves are taking advantage of lower numbers of staff in stores and shoplifters' often abusive behaviour towards workers is exacerbating the labour shortage.


The original article contains 433 words, the summary contains 150 words. Saved 65%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

[–] spiderkle@lemmy.ca 7 points 7 months ago (1 children)

So is there higher demand for olive oil or was the harvest worse? Or are companies just raising their prices because operating costs are higher?

[–] bad_alloc@feddit.de 23 points 7 months ago (3 children)

Worse harvests due to a major drought in the mediterranean. Olives and Trees now get stolen. Costs are also up, so it is a terrbile mixture.

[–] tal@lemmy.today 9 points 7 months ago

How do you steal an olive tree? I can't imagine that it's easy to run around with the root system.

googles

Ah, they're cutting them down and selling them for wood.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2023/11/07/olive-oil-greece-italy-spain-climate-change-theft/3267b48e-7dec-11ee-b5cc-66c30a3bbb91_story.html

As price of olive oil soars, chainsaw-wielding thieves target Mediterranean's century-old trees

Most of the thefts are branches. When an entire tree is cut down, the thieves typically cut it up and load the pieces into a pickup truck, selling the wood to lumber yards or firewood vendors and taking the olives to an oil mill.

β€œThe (robbers) look for heavily loaded branches and they cut them,” said Neilos Papachristou, who runs an olive mill and nearby grove in a fourth-generation family business. β€œSo, not only do they steal our olives, but they cause the tree serious harm. It takes 4-5 years for it to return to normal.”

Welcome to the new normal, I guess

[–] spiderkle@lemmy.ca 2 points 7 months ago

thank you for the info.

[–] pan_troglodytes@programming.dev -4 points 7 months ago (1 children)

is canola/rapeseed oil just not imported to Spain? seems like a good investment, that shit is cheeeeeap

[–] A2PKXG@feddit.de 3 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Lots of sunflower oil used to come from Ukraine, until it didn't. The cooking oil disruptions in Europe are close to those we had with loo paper during COVID.

bunches of oilseed grown in the US and Canada though...