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I was just in Spain, and was told that prior to the financial crisis much of the olive oil produced in Italy and Greece was made from olives grown in Spain. (Sp
by zb 10y ago
I was just in Spain, and was told that prior to the financial crisis much of the olive oil produced in Italy and Greece was made from olives grown in Spain. (Spain is a massive producer of olives.) After the crisis they stopped exporting olives and started bottling their own oil, which was the cause of the shortage in supply of extra virgin oil from e.g. Italy that led to organised crime getting into the fake olive oil business. So there's every reason to think that Spain in particular is awash in genuine olive oil.
- lovemenot 10y agoSo, a result of the crisis was that Spain decided circumstances had changed such that foreigners' cash was needed less than before? Your facts may be right (I don't know) but if so, Spanish authorities made a basic economic error in that decision.
- edu 10y agoNo, businessmen realized it's more profitable to process the olives and sell the oil than just selling the olives.
- zb 10y agoNo, you make more money exporting value-added products (like olive oil) than raw ingredients (like olives). Basic economics says you want to move higher up the value chain, and that's what (I'm told) they did. Of course this caused further problems for Greece and Italy, which were already not in good shape.