The news comes as a photo went viral last week showing cupboard staple olive oil for sale in a Tesco store for almost as high as £13 per bottle
The price of olive oil has soared to record highs – reaching as much as almost £8 for a supermarket own-brand bottle.
Data from the Office for National Statistics showed the average price of a bottle of olive oil has risen by 39% in the past year. Now, the average price of a supermarket own-brand one litre bottle is now £7.68, while a year ago it cost £5.51.
Meanwhile, two litres could set shoppers back an eye-watering £16 – and prices are unlikely to come down to what they were for a while. The news comes as a photo went viral last week showing the cupboard staple for sale in a Tesco store for almost as high as £13 per bottle.
Tesco has responded to the ONS figures, saying the price of its oil starts at £3.30. However, British and European consumers have been hit by soaring olive oil shelf prices in recent months due to varying factors. Olive groves across Europe were hit by adverse weather last year, including the hottest summer on record.
Temperatures hit as high as the low forties in Spain, the world’s leading producer of olive oil and there were wildfires in major producing countries such as Greece which led to low production in olive groves. The oil, known colloquially as “liquid gold”, is now the most stolen product in supermarkets in Spanish regions covering about half the country, according to new figures.
Organised criminal gangs are stealing the oil before reselling it, according to Ruben Navarro, the head of the Tu Super supermarket chain, which operates 30 stores in Spain’s Andalucia region. He said: “Olive oil has become an ideal product for them to steal.”
To help tackle the problem, supermarkets in the country have been chaining large five-litre bottles of olive oil together and padlocking them to shelves to prevent theft, or have been fitting one-litre vessels with security tags that have to be removed by staff.
