Olive oil: rising prices will increase the cost of pizza

Core inflation in Europe may be falling, but olive oil prices continue to rise, significantly increasing the cost of Italy’s and Spain’s finest dishes.

In September, the Bloomberg Pizza and Paella indices, which measure how much Italian and Spanish households spend on ingredients to make these signature Mediterranean dishes, were up 8.2% and 20.6% from a year ago. These percentages are multiples of overall inflation in the two countries, which was 5.6% in Italy and 3.3% in Spain. Italian and Spanish families also paid more for vegetables.

What really stands out, however, is the cost of olive oil: in Italy it was up 43% compared to the previous year, while Spain saw an even bigger jump of 67%.

In fact, the European Commission reported last week that the rise in olive oil prices in Europe will continue for another seasonWhat will force consumers to limit consumption of the product. Europe is the base supplier for two-thirds of the world’s olive oil production. Prices have doubled over the past year after drought damaged crops from major producers. As the climate warms, pests and diseases have also destroyed crops.

The global food cost index released earlier this month was little changed in September, according to the United Nations. This was partly due to cheaper prices for other vegetable oilsas the sunflower harvest in the Black Sea region and palm trees in Southeast Asia brought prices down by almost 4%.

The total cost of Margherita pizza ingredients and the energy to bake it rose 18.4% year on year, up from 8% last year, according to Bloomberg calculations based on data from statistics service Istat and the Ministry of Economy. However, its growth rate has slowed from a high of 30% recorded in November last year. On the other hand, the price you pay for ready-made pizza has increased by just 7.7%.

Bloomberg calculated the prices of pizza ingredients – flour, tomatoes, mozzarella and olive oil, as well as electricity. The largest monthly increase (compared to April) was noted in the price of tomatoes (7.5%), and only energy costs decreased (by 1.4%). The detailed price changes were as follows:

• Flour prices rose by 9.4% year on year and by 0.3% month on month.
• Mozzarella rose in price by 22.1% and 0.3%, respectively.
• Tomato prices rose by 18.2% and 7.5%.
• Olive oil rose in price by 24.6% and 1.0%
• Electricity rose 13.5% year-on-year but fell 1.4% month-on-month.

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