AEMO: Study of Olive Cultivation Costs

  There are different studies on the costs of cultivation, but the AEMO study was the pioneer as it classified cultivation systems in a typology which was acquired by organisms and research centers. This typology is divided into OTNM (Non-machinable Traditional Olive Groves), OTM (Machinable Traditional Olive Groves), OI (Intense Olive Groves) and OS (Dry or Superintensive Olive Groves). Depending on each type of crop, your main tasks about working on them vary somewhat. These tasks are soil maintenance, fertilization, pruning, pests… so crossing the prices of these tasks, the price of a kilo of oil in each type of crop variety is obtained. The costs of the different crops are presented in the following table: Type of Crop Cost of kg oil (€) Dry NMTO 3,52 Rainfed OTM 2,64 OTM Irrigation 2,18 Dry RO 1,90 IR Irrigation 1,60 OS Irrigation 1,49 Source: Own elaboration with data from AEMO. Distributing the typology within the surface of the Spanish olive grove, we find on average that the production of a kilo of olive oil in Spain costs around € 2.49. When we study each individual price of each crop, we find a range of € 3.52 and € 1.49, so with the prices that olive oil is now and these costs, it is difficult to make a profit.