Bottles of olive oil and sunflower oil at a Mercadona SA supermarket in Barcelona, Spain. Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesOlive oil prices spiked to fresh records as severe droughts in major producing countries crimp supplies — and drive up thefts in cooking oil. Spain, the world's largest producer and exporter of olive oil, has been battered by an intense drought for months. Olive oil thievesPrices of olive oil in Spain's Andalusia soared to €8.45 ($9.02) per kilogram in September, Mintec's benchmark showed. Shortly before that, thieves made off with 6,000 liters of extra virgin olive oil worth €50,000 from Terraverne oil mill, Spanish newspaper El Munco said.

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Persons: Kyle Holland, Marin Serrano El Lagar, El Munco Organizations: Mercadona SA, Bloomberg, Getty, United States Department of Agriculture, CNBC, International Olive Council Locations: Barcelona, Spain, Italy, Greece, Spain's Andalusia, Spanish