JAÉN, Spain — The trees on the hills around this city are heavy with fruit for the first time in three years, and the mood among the people who own them is oddly flat.
Spain produces nearly half of the world's olive oil, and the drought that cut its harvest in half in 2023 and 2024 sent prices to levels never seen before. This year's crop is expected to be close to normal. Wholesale prices have already fallen by a third.
For consumers, that is relief. For growers, who borrowed through the bad years, it means repaying loans at the new prices. Several cooperatives have asked the regional government for bridge financing.
“Everyone wanted the rain,” said Antonio Molina, who farms 40 hectares. “Nobody asked what it would do to the price.”
Climate scientists caution that a single wet winter does not reverse the longer trend toward hotter, drier conditions in the region.
A version of this article appears in print on Oct. 11, 2026, Section A, Page 11 of the European edition with the headline: Spain's Olive Harvest Rebounds. The Price of Oil Falls. The Farmers Are Not Celebrating..
