Olive oil becomes most wanted item for shoplifters in Spain

Olive oil has become the most coveted commodity in Spain, with criminal organizations now targeting the coveted liquid gold in supermarkets to resell on the black market. According to recent figures, olive oil has supplanted other popular items as the most pilfered product in regions that account for 70% of the country’s population. The Financial Times reports that this unprecedented trend has seen supermarkets chain together large five-litre bottles of olive oil and padlock them to shelves to prevent theft, while some stores have opted to fit the bottles with security tags that staff must remove.

Spain, the world’s largest producer of olive oil, has been experiencing shortages due to harsh weather conditions that have ravaged olive harvests for the second consecutive year. Global production is expected to slump to 2.4 million tonnes, falling short of the 3 million tonnes in global demand. This scarcity has extended to the Mediterranean region, with similar thefts of olive oil reported in Greece.

Over the past four years, olive oil prices have skyrocketed in Spain, more than tripling to as high as €14 per litre. What was once a affordable staple for many shoppers is now a luxury item, with prices having nearly tripled. Alejandra Alegre, marketing director at STC, a security company that conducted the survey of supermarkets, believes these thefts are not driven by hunger, but rather by organized crime seeking to profit from scarcity.

In a recent operation, Spanish and Italian police arrested 11 individuals and seized over 5,000 litres of adulterated olive oil, dismantling an international gang suspected of passing off cheap olive oils as more expensive equivalents. Alegre notes that it is unusual for an essential food item like olive oil to rank so high on the list of stolen goods, giving credence to the notion that these thefts are indeed driven by profit rather than necessity.

Olive oil growers and companies that press olives into oil have also been targeted, with thieves stealing tens of thousands of litres of products. This widespread theft has become a significant concern, not only for the olive oil industry but also for supermarket owners and law enforcement agencies.