Spain is currently facing the challenge of an extremely arid climate, with normal agricultural production activities hindered and people's livelihoods severely affected. Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez stated that drought has become a long-term issue for the country, and discussions around drought will become a core political issue for Spain in the coming years. According to statistics from the Spanish National Meteorological Agency, 2022 was the hottest year on record. Due to 36 consecutive months of below average rainfall, Spain has officially entered a long-term drought period.
The drought has dealt a heavy blow to Spanish agriculture. As the world's largest producer and exporter of olive oil, Spain's olive oil production has significantly decreased due to extreme drought weather. From October 2022 to February 2023, olive oil production decreased by 50% year-on-year, leading to global supply shortages and pushing up prices. As of April this year, the price of Spanish olive oil has reached 5.75 euros per kilogram, a year-on-year increase of 47%, setting a 26 year high. Given the ongoing drought in Spain, it is expected that the price of olive oil will continue to rise for some time. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19, in order to avoid the increased risk of infection from eating out, global consumers have more frequently chosen to cook at home. Therefore, the demand for olive oil has been rising, bringing greater pressure to the olive oil supply chain that has already faced challenges. At the same time, the Russia-Ukraine conflict led to a global shortage of sunflower oil, further boosting the demand for olive oil.
The main Spanish farmers' and herders' unions have stated that, in addition to olive oil, insufficient precipitation has affected 60% of Spain's agricultural areas, causing "irreversible losses" to over 3.5 million hectares of crops. In major cultivation areas such as Andalusia, Castilla, Estremadura, and Murcia, some farms are even in a state of no harvest. The association stated that in the main wine producing areas of Larioha, farmers "have to irrigate their grapes... usually they never need to water them". The lack of irrigation water limits farmers' ability to irrigate crops such as corn, sunflowers, rice, and cotton. Many farmers say they also have no way to know if there is enough water to save their crops. Some farmers have decided not to plant crops this spring to avoid losses. Spanish Agriculture Minister Pranas stated that Spain has applied to the European Union for funding to provide emergency financial assistance to over 890000 agricultural and livestock producers.
Drought has caused damage to the local ecology. Spain has a high vegetation coverage and dry climate conditions, making it prone to fires. The fire season usually starts in June, when the climate is hot. Under the influence of extreme dry weather, the fire season in Spain has already started ahead of schedule, with a major mountain fire in March destroying nearly 3000 hectares of land. According to data from the European Forest Fire Information System, as of now, fires have burned approximately 54000 hectares of land in Spain.
Due to insufficient precipitation, the Catalonia region in northeastern Spain has experienced particularly severe drought, with the current capacity of the Ter-Llobregat tap water system supplying most of Spain being only 27%. Due to the rapid decline of reservoir water levels in some areas, the storage capacity is even less than 10%. In response to the extremely severe drought problem, the Catalan government has announced new water restrictions for nearly 6 million people. After the new measures take effect, the daily water consumption of each person shall not exceed 230 liters, including the water consumption for personal use and public services such as street cleaning. The city government prohibits water injection into facilities such as fountains. At the same time, agricultural and industrial water use is also forced to be restricted, and the amount of water that must be reduced in agricultural activities has increased from the current 25% to 40%, while industrial water use must be reduced by more than 15%.
