In the space of 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), an office attached to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise. Between January and April 2025, Spain bought 103 tonnes of oil from its neighbour; in the same period in 2026, the figure reached 10,384.7 tonnes. The increase of 9,979% is accurate and verifiable, but it needs some context to understand what it actually means.
Why such a high percentage is not a mistake
The jump is largely explained by the starting point: when the initial figure is so small, any moderate increase in absolute terms translates into an exorbitant percentage. Going from 103 to just over 10,000 tonnes multiplies the figure by 100, and that multiplication, expressed as a percentage, is close to five digits. The same pattern is seen in the economic value of those purchases: from 340,000 euros to 32.76 million, an increase of 9,535%.
Put into perspective, Moroccan oil still represents only a small fraction of the Spanish market. Using data up to February 2026, Morocco accounted for 7.48% of Spain’s olive oil imports, compared with 2.01% a year earlier: a notable advance, but far from a dominant position. Spain is also producing around 1.295 million tonnes of oil in the 2025-2026 season, far higher than the little over 10,000 tonnes imported from Morocco in the first four months of the campaign. Morocco’s growth is real and rapid, but on its own it does not change the weight of domestic production.
