On 31 January agricultural forecasts pointed to an olive oil production of around 126,000 tonnes (1.37 million hectolitres) in the 2022 campaign. Despite a 40% decrease compared to the previous campaign, last year's campaign is expected to be the fourth highest ever, data from the National Statistics Institute (INE) on agricultural forecasts for 2022 reveal. These figures were recorded in a year with very unfavourable weather and hydrological conditions.

The decline in olive oil production will be more pronounced in traditional olive groves, the institute said. INE's forecast is based on a set of factors that influenced productivity, such as adverse weather conditions (high temperatures and extreme drought) and attacks of locust and fruit fly (due to lack of treatments).

Thus, olive oil production should register a drop of 40% compared to the 2021 campaign (reaching 126,000 tonnes), which had the highest production ever: 2.29 million hectolitres (around 210,000 tonnes). According to INE, in general, the olive oil produced "presents good quality, with low acidity and good organoleptic characteristics".


Rain reduced wheat and barley production area

Large levels of rainfall were recorded between October 2022 and January 2023. According to INE, the beginning of this hydrological year proved to be the third wettest in the last 25 years. Thus, the difficulties experienced in sowing crops due to waterlogging of the soil (and which made it difficult for machinery to enter the fields) led to a decrease in the area of soft wheat (-15%), durum wheat (-25%), barley (-5%) and triticale (-10%).

With regard to water reserves, at the end of January the volume of this resource stored in the country's main reservoirs was at 80% of total capacity, a higher percentage than in the month immediately preceding (77%).

Considering Alqueva (one of the country's main reservoirs), on 31 January there was 89% water storage. Four months earlier, in September, this percentage was 64%.

For its part, at the end of the first month of the year, there was also an increase in the "area in weak drought", with special focus on the districts of Faro, Beja and Setúbal. This "weak drought" was registered in a total of 18% of the country. According to the Portuguese institute, the water content in the soil, in relation to the capacity of water that plants can use, decreased in much of the territory.

Despite high levels of precipitation in recent months, an increase in the area in weak drought at the end of January, and the difficulty in setting up crops and putting machinery on the ground, it was possible to recover agricultural delays. INE assures that the "meteorological and hydrological conditions allowed the recovery of some delays that were registered in the pruning of vineyards and orchards. In addition, the normal development of most crops installed was also favoured.