Food & Drink News ~ Spanish exports under threat as drought continues to affect it�s wine and olive production

Spain�s agriculture production, particularly it�s grape and olive crops are coming under threat as around half the country is on alert of drought.The Spanish reservoirs are standing  at 56 percent, the lowest since June 1995, and the summer is only just getting started. This April was the hottest this century, and only heavy rainfall in the autumn could help.save the olive crop.

Spain  is the world's leading olive producer and provides 50% of the global supply of olive oil and 35 percent of table olives. Last year�s poor harvest throughout the Mediterranean in general reduced the world production of olive oil by 11%. Producers in the province of Ja�n in Andalucia one of the main areas for Spanish olive crops, are warning that if the shortage of rain continues, it will have serious consequences on the harvest which has suffered already due to a few dry years. As a result, olive oil prices have surged by almost a quarter this year.

The country�s wine producers are also hoping for rain, only a break in the continual dry weather could help a year that has already seen production drop of up to 50% in some regions. It is almost a certainty that the volume produced will be down, but without some cooler weather in August the period when the grapes come to maturity, the overall quality of the wine is also in danger.

Food & Drink News ~ Spanish wines were the star at this year�s Vinexpo

The biannual event of Vinexpo was held in the French city of Bordeaux last week, it is one of the world�s leading wine fairs. Over 40 countries attended and this year�s guest nation was Spain. There were around 2,300 producers in attendance, with 100 of them being from Spanish wineries.

The link between wine and gastronomy in Spain is highly important and unbelievably more so than in France. For this reason Spain sent a team of 12 chefs, led by the two top chefs Ferran Adri� and Jos� Andr�s, to prepare dishes to accompany the wine tastings.

Spain, now exports more wine than any other country and has seen an increase of 43% in it�s exports in the last 5 years. Despite this it is only third in terms of earnings, this is due to selling more wine at wholesale. Spain produces some great wines, but it doesn�t produce enough wine that sells at good prices. To improve the country needs to do more to promote the many different types of wines it produces and not just the regions of Castilla-La Mancha and Rioja.