https://www.dw.com/en/has-spain-s-olive-oil-become-a-luxury-item/a-67666882?maca=en-rss-en-all-1573-xml-atom
For Spanish consumers, so-called green gold is a driver of inflation. For producers, it is both an opportunity and a challenge as they have to grow production and sales.
Which is more affordable and good quality? Italian is as expansive, if not even more. Instead Portugal, Greece, Turkey?
Haven't tasted olive oil from Turkey, but Greek oil is very good, stronger than most Italian or Spanish. But it's very expensive, and it's suffering more from droughts and fires.
Portuguese is the same as southern Spain, mostly Picual variety. However it's not really much cheaper despite what the article claims, unless you go for shit quality.
IMHO go for the cheapest in your area that is extravirgin certified and the variety you like.
Well making sure that it actually is extra virgin is kind of the hard part about it
The amount of extra virgin oil produced is like ten percent of extra virgin oil sold. Sadly I can't find the source right now, but the fraud is at an incredible scale
Where have you tasted portuguese olive oil?
Depending on the region, the end product is radically different, and the trees here are mostly local varieties, especially if you look for small scale producers, that run their olives through cooperative mills.
What is running prices high this year is mostly speculation.
In 2017/18/19/20, the oil per kilo ratio was somewhere between 1L/12-14kg of fruit. Producer prices were levelled at €5/L, for over a decade.
This year, the ratio is down by 1L/8-10kg of fruit. Prices sky rocket. Labour price hasn't changed in years (€50/day hand, €150/hour for fully mechanized picking).
If this isn't speculation, nothing is.