In just 12 months, Morocco has become a much more visible supplier of olive oil to the Spanish market, according to the latest DataComex figures (source in Spanish), which reports to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise. Between January and April 2025, Spain bought 103 tonnes of oil from its neighbouring country; in the same period of 2026, the figure reached 10,384.7 tonnes. The 9,979% increase is accurate and verifiable, but it needs some context to understand what it really means.
Why such a high percentage is not a mistake
The leap is explained largely by the starting point: when the initial figure is so small, any moderate increase in absolute terms translates into an eye-watering percentage. Going from 103 to just over 10,000 tonnes makes the figure 100 times larger, and expressed as a percentage that multiplication is close to five digits. The same pattern is seen in the economic value of these purchases: from €340,000 to €32.76 million, up 9,535%.
Put in perspective, Moroccan oil still accounts for only a small fraction of the Spanish market. Using data up to February 2026, Morocco supplied 7.48% of Spain’s olive oil imports, compared with 2.01% a year earlier: a notable increase, but still far from a dominant position. Spain also produces around 1.295 million tonnes of oil in the 2025-2026 season, a figure far higher than the just over 10,000 tonnes imported from Morocco in the first four months. Morocco’s growth is real and rapid, but on its own it does not change the overall weight of domestic production.
