MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 06th August, 2023) Turkey's embargo on olive oil exports will cost the country about $220 million, while Spanish, US and Italian consumers will suffer the most, according to data from the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) seen by Sputnik on Sunday.
On August 1, the Turkish Trade Ministry announced that the country had suspended olive oil exports until November 1 due to the global price hike and because Spain and Italy were processing Turkish olive oil and selling it to third countries.
Most olive oil producers faced a collapse in production in 2022-2023, the International Olive Council said. While Spain and Portugal fared worse, Turkey increased production to 380,000 tonnes in the period, up from 235,000 tonnes the previous year, the data showed.
Spain was the largest importer of olive oil this year, increasing its average monthly purchases 29-fold to $33.7 million from $1.2 million in the first half of last year. The United States was second, increasing its average monthly imports in monetary terms by 4.2 times, from $5.1 million to $21.2 million. The third most important destination was Italy, where purchases increased 403 times from $12,100 to $4.9 million, according to the data.
Other major importers of Turkish olive oil in the first half of this year were Japan, which purchased products worth an average of $2.6 million per month, Saudi Arabia ($1.7 million) and Morocco ($1.5 million).
