Ease up on those extra-long glugs of Spanish olive oil that you pour over bread. You'll still be able to get it, but it's about to cost you a pretty penny.
Spanish and Italian olive oil, which collectively make up about 70% of the world's olive oil, are nearing an all-time production low — down 50% in the 2014-2015 season. The shortage is due to a combination of disease and heat to those regions' olive crops, reports Bloomberg.
“The supply shortages as a result of the drought, and particularly under-production in Spain, have filtered through to the marketplace," said head of packaged food research at Euromonitor International, Lamine Lahouasnia.
Spain's oil shortage follows an unusually hot summer and continued large-scale product exports to Italy.
The Italian government has proclaimed a "state of calamity" over its own dwindling olive groves, due to fruit fly infestations and a bacterial disease called xylella fastidiosa, via The Guardian.
That means your olive oil is about to become a lot more expensive. In fact, if you've been paying attention — it already has.
Demand exceeds supply right now, and because of that, prices have reached $4,272 per metric ton, the highest since April 2006. In 2012 Good Housekeeping priced Lucini Extra Premium Italian olive oil at $16.99 per bottle. Today on Lucini's own website, you will pay $22.79 for that same bottle.
Consumer olive oil prices have risen faster (an average of 10%) globally than overall inflation for packaged food over the last year, and this new shortage means your pockets won't feel relief anytime soon.
We aren't ready to declare a worldwide oil emergency yet, but we're certainly clutching those cruets of liquid gold a little closer to our hearts.