Spanish Olive Oil Prices Ease at Origin While Traded Volume Falls 35.94%, POOLred Data Show

Olive oil prices in Spain's origin market fell year on year over the summer trading window, while the volume of oil changing hands dropped by more than a third, according to provisional data from the POOLred system operated by the Fundación del Olivar. The average price across all categories traded between 26 June and 26 August 2026 stood at €3,317.09 per tonne, against €3,512.08 per tonne in the same period of 2025, a decline of 5.55%, ideal.es reported.

Extra virgin absorbs the largest correction

The adjustment was uneven across grades. Extra virgin olive oil, the highest-value category and the reference for retail bottling and export contracts, carried almost the entire decline, while the lower grades destined for blending and for refining moved only marginally.

• Extra virgin olive oil: €3,534.70 per tonne, down 6.67% year on year
• Virgin olive oil: €3,214.70 per tonne, down 1.72%
• Lampante olive oil, Base 1º: €3,016.69 per tonne, down 1.05%

ideal.es described the variations in the virgin and lampante categories as moderate, noting that the behaviour of extra virgin reflects a more significant adjustment in quotations against the previous year. The practical effect is a compressed quality premium. The gap between extra virgin and lampante now stands at €518.01 per tonne, against roughly €738 per tonne implied by POOLred's own year-on-year percentages for the 2025 period. The spread between extra virgin and virgin is €320.00 per tonne. The all-category average of €3,317.09 per tonne sits between the virgin and extra virgin quotations, indicating that higher grades still account for a substantial share of the oil actually sold.

Trading volume falls 35.94%

The most pronounced change was in commercial activity rather than in price. POOLred's provisional figures place the volume traded during the period 35.94% below the same dates in 2025, which the report characterised as evidence of lower intensity of operations at origin.

The asymmetry between the two movements is the defining feature of the period: a price decline of 5.55% alongside a volume contraction of close to 36% describes a market in which far fewer lots are being negotiated, not one clearing large quantities at reduced levels. Because POOLred registers completed purchase-and-sale operations rather than offers or indications, a thinner tape also means fewer transactions stand behind each published average, leaving the series more exposed to the grade and lot mix of whatever does trade. For operators reading the quotations, that argues for treating short-run movements in the averages with more caution than usual during low-activity stretches.

How the POOLred series is built

The POOLred system, managed by the Fundación del Olivar, continuously tracks real purchase-and-sale operations for olive oil at origin. Its stated purpose is to supply objective and updated information that contributes to transparency and to knowledge of how the olive oil market is evolving. The figures covering 26 June to 26 August 2026 are provisional and subject to revision.

For mills, bottlers and traders, origin quotations at these levels feed directly into bulk contracts and, with a lag, into packaged prices further down the chain. The divergence between grades is the operative detail. Producers of top-quality oil have seen their reward for quality narrow, since extra virgin fell 6.67% while lampante gave up only 1.05%. Refiners buying lampante face input costs almost unchanged from a year earlier, but the price advantage of refined-grade raw material over extra virgin has shrunk in absolute terms. Bottlers and importers sourcing extra virgin from Spanish origin obtain it 6.67% cheaper than a year ago in euro terms, while facing a market where the number of available closed operations has fallen by more than a third.