Tariffs hit Spain's black olive exporters

Spain's black olive exporters, subject to harsh tariffs since US President Donald Trump's first term, are warning it will be difficult to survive an extra 15% they now face under the European Union's latest trade deal with the United States.

- CORINA PONS

EU goods now face import tariffs of 15% — half of Trump’s threatened rate, but much more than Europeans had hoped for — after striking a trade deal with Trump on Sunday. Spain, the world’s top table olive exporter, has seen its share of the US black olive market plummet from 49% in 2017 to 19% in 2024 after Trump imposed tariffs of more than 30% at the request of California olive growers.

The measures only affected black olives and don’t apply to green olives, olive oil or semi-processed olives.

Spanish farmers have taken steps to increase green olive sales and to diversify their markets since the tariffs were first imposed but warn the additional increase will be hard to swallow.

“It would be unviable [for black table olives],” said Eduardo Martin, secretary of Asaja, a Spanish local farmers’ association in southern Seville province, a region that produces the most olives.

The initial trade measures coincided with a severe drought that forced Spanish producers to cut around 400,000 work shifts for pickers out of a total of 2.5 million, according to industry estimates.