In Spain, the world's biggest producer, the young farmers' association Asaja says 2014 is "another disaster" after a calamitous harvest two years ago. Spain's output is forecast to plunge by more than 50 percent, with a drop of at least 60 percent in the southern Andalucia region.
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For celebrated Italian olive oil producers, "this is the worst year in memory," said Pietro Sandali, head of the Italian olive growers' consortium, Unaprol. The group expects a 35 percent drop in national production this year.
After heavy spring and summer rain, some growers didn't bother to harvest their meager crop. For some who did, the volume is low and the quality is poor.
French growers say they face their most daunting crisis since a big freeze in 1956 decimated olive groves. This year's harvest was initially expected to fetch some 5,000 metric tons of olive oil but it may reach only 1,500 metric tons, according to the Inter-professional French Olives Association.
The big culprit there is a fly the size of a small ant. The fly pricks olives and places larvae inside, and the maggots tunnel through the fruit. The flies have long been a problem for olive oil producers, but the scale this year has astonished farmers.
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Greek growers, however, anticipate windfall profits. Greece is the world's third-largest producer and is set to more than double its annual output, to 300,000 metric tons. That is good news for farms in places such as Crete and the southern Peloponnese region where Greece's acute financial crisis in recent years had left growers short of cash for maintenance and investment.
The predicted shrinkage in EU output should also be offset in part, experts say, by Spanish stocks left over from last year's record yield.
