Italy asks EU to activate olive oil reserve fund
Producer prices in Italy's top olive-growing regions have fallen by more than half, even as stocks climb 40% after a bumper 2025-26 harvest.
Italy has asked the European Union to activate its Agricultural Reserve after olive oil prices in its main producing regions fell by more than 50% over the past year, industry data show.
Rome brought the request to the EU's Agriculture Council in Brussels on 28 and 29 September, seeking funds for "exceptional measures aimed at addressing serious market disturbances," according to EU affairs outlet Eunews. Producers say current prices are "not sufficiently remunerative."
Italian olive oil stocks stood at about 233,000 tonnes in July 2026, up 40% from 162,000 tonnes a year earlier, Eunews reports, citing EU data. Stocks across the whole EU for the 2025/26 season are estimated at 420,000 tonnes.
A record harvest turned into the glut now squeezing the same growers who produced it.
A rebound in supply reversed the market
The glut follows a sharp recovery in Italian production. Output for the 2025-26 season jumped 31% to roughly 325,000 tonnes, after several thin harvests had driven prices to record highs in 2023 and 2024.
Rising stocks have combined with high production costs, driven in part by energy and fertiliser prices linked to the Middle East crisis, to squeeze growers' margins even as oil reaches supermarket shelves more cheaply, Eunews reports.
A wider Mediterranean reset
Greece has posted a similar pattern this year: prices there fell by half as its 2026 harvest began, even as the country's production is forecast between 280,000 and 330,000 tonnes. Spain, the world's largest producer, has also scaled back its own estimate, to between 1.4 and 1.5 million tonnes, after a dry, hot summer, though that is still well above the lean harvests of 2022 and 2023.
Italian farm groups Coldiretti and Unaprol have pressed Rome to act, noting that roughly half a billion kilos of foreign olive oil entered Italy last year, adding further pressure on domestic prices, according to trade outlet L'OlivoNews.
The Agricultural Reserve, a fund built into the EU's farm budget, has previously financed emergency aid and private storage schemes for sectors hit by sudden price swings. The European Commission has not yet said whether it will release money for olive oil.
