Inside El Nino – Spain’s olive plantations grow expensive

As part of CGTN’s special series Inside El Niño, this report turns to Spain, the world’s largest producer of olive oil, where a potentially record-strength Super El Niño is intensifying the pressures already facing an industry that supplies more than half of global output.

With hundreds of millions of olive trees covering a landscape the size of Belgium and sustaining entire communities, producers are confronting declining harvests, soaring input costs and the growing risks of drought, extreme heat and disrupted yields linked to the climate pattern.

Production in key regions has already fallen sharply, while broader European farm losses mount amid a climate heating twice as fast as the global average.

Experts warn the phenomenon could drive significant rises in food prices worldwide, underscoring the vulnerability of this cultural and economic staple and the urgent need for better water management and resilience as the Super El Niño stretches from mid-2026 into early next year.