via kake
BRUSSELS (AP) — These days, think twice before you lavishly ladle olive oil onto your pasta, salad or crusty bread.
Olive oil, a daily staple of Mediterranean cuisine and the life of many a salad throughout Europe, is experiencing a staggering rise in price. It’s a prime example of how food still outruns overall inflation in the European Union.
Olive oil has increased by about 75% since January 2021, dwarfing overall annual inflation that has already been considered unusually high over the past few years and even stood at 11.5% in October last year. And much of the food inflation has come over the past two years alone.
In Spain, the world’s biggest olive oil producer, prices jumped 53% in August compared to the previous year and a massive 115% since August 2021.
Apart from olive oil, “potato prices were also on a staggering rise,” according to EU statistical agency Eurostat. “Since January 2021, prices for potatoes increased by 53% in September 2023.