In a year of drought, Portugal will have record olive oil production
In a dry year, with an agricultural distinction from the National Statistics Institute (with 25 million hectoliters), the hectoliter oil campaign stands out.
At first glance it may seem contradictory but, in fact, the INE confirms that that record in the production of olive oil – news advanced, by the way, by the Express on January 13 – if the fact of January is selected “excellent conditions of the campaign and the renovation throughout the campaign and the suitability for the development of the future”, from which we owe “the growing importance of intensive olive groves”.
On the other hand, and according to the INE, “the negative effects of the severe and extreme meteorological drought that, at the end of January, affected 45% of the mainland territory”.
One of the penalized production sectors has been penalized, particularly extensively, “due to the grazing conditions, which are forcing the production of more food for their animals.
In cereals, there are impacts, either in the increase in sown areas (predictably, the lowest in the last hundred years), or in the weak vegetative development of rainfed crops.
This drought scenario, concludes INE, combined with the rise in the prices of means of production, “has generated uncertainty and growth in the sector”.