Greek olive oil is consumed in large quantities in Greece today. Still, the small population leaves plenty of oil for export. Much of it goes to Italy in bulk, but growing numbers of Greek producers are striving for excellent quality, bottling their olive oil under their own brands, and winning awards at international olive oil competitions each year.
Many believe Greece produces the third largest quantity of olive oil in the world, after Spain and Italy. However, a closer look at International Olive Council (IOC) statistics for the crop years of 2014/15 to 2023/24 reveals a more complex picture. As the world’s major olive oil producer, Spain always comes out ahead, but Greece and Italy switch places in terms of higher production levels in alternate years. Moreover, the production of Turkey and Tunisia has surpassed that of Greece and Italy in some of the past ten years.
In the last decade, according to the IOC, Greece’s annual olive oil production has ranged from a low of 175,000 metric tons in 2023/24 to a high of 346,000 metric tons in 2017/18, with 2022/23 close, at 345,000. Greece’s ten-year average of annual olive oil production is 264,800 metric tons.
According to the Association of Greek Industries and Packers of Olive Oil (SEVITEL), olive oil accounts for approximately 9% of the total agricultural production value in Greece. Moreover, it makes up 2 to 3% of the value of all exports from Greece, and 20% of the value of food exports. Around 50 or 60% of Greek olive oil is exported. While olive oil represents just 0.4% of Greece’s GDP, that is much higher than the estimated 0.03% of the GDP of Europe overall.
Domestic use and quality of Greek olive oil today
Greek olive oil consumption is not as high as it used to be, but many still believe Greeks use more olive oil per person than anyone else in the world. The IOC estimates that Greece will consume 110,000 metric tons in 2024/25. Given a population of roughly 10 million and 1,097 liters of olive oil per metric ton, that comes to an average of 12 liters per person in a year. (Greeks’ estimates for consumption in olive oil producing regions such as Crete are much higher.) For comparison: Americans consume something like 1 kilogram of olive oil per person annually.
It is not surprising that Greeks use so much olive oil, since this liquid gold plays a central role in the traditional Greek Mediterranean diet, and it is valued for both its flavor and its health benefits. SEVITEL estimates that 70-80% of Greek olive oil is extra virgin, the most flavorful, healthiest grade of olive oil. Many Greeks believe this is a much higher percentage than anywhere else in the world.
Greek olive oil in Italian bottles
In spite of that, for decades Greeks have sold the olive oil they don’t need for their families and friends to agents who sell it to Italy in bulk. There, Greeks say, high quality Greek extra virgin olive oils are mixed with other olive oils to improve the blends from a number of countries that comprise much of what the world thinks of as premium “Italian” olive oil.
There are bottles of olive oil that contain only Italian oils–about 30% of those bottled in Italy, according to a 2022 analysis by the Office of Economic and Commercial Affairs of the Greek Embassy in Milan. However, those labelled “bottled in” or “imported from” Italy are likely to be partly Greek, since Italy exports far more olive oil than it produces, and it imports large quantities of Greek olive oil. (Italians also consume a lot of olive oil, further reducing the quantity available for export.)
When their extra virgin olive oil is blended and bottled in Italy, Greeks do not get the credit, or the added value–what some might call fair pay, especially given the high production costs in Greece. In these cases, producers earn a very small fraction of what consumers finally pay for their bottled olive oil.
Greek olive oil with a 100% Greek identity
In recent years, numerous Greek olive oil producers, bottlers, and exporters have decided it was time to change that. Although SEVITEL believes only 20% of Greek olive oil is bottled and branded before leaving the country, the association estimates that there are now 700 to 750 companies producing branded olive oil in Greece. This often comes in distinctive packaging that wins design awards, as well as indicating the date and place of production so consumers can understand exactly what they’re getting, and precisely where it comes from. (PGI and PDO designations also help explain that.)
As more Greek producers focus on the steps required to create excellent extra virgin olive oil—careful pruning, cultivation, grove management, harvesting, milling, bottling, and storage practices–large numbers of Greek extra virgin olive oils have been winning major awards at international competitions throughout the world. This helps attract the attention of specialty stores and supermarket chains. In addition, increasing numbers of Greek producers are learning how to make especially healthy high phenolic extra virgin olive oil that is prized by health-conscious consumers.
Quality over quantity, and olive trees everywhere
Many Greek olive growers use updated versions of traditional methods of cultivation and harvest, with small family farms remaining common. There is very little of the intensive or super-intensive olive cultivation and mechanized harvesting that can be found on huge olive plantations in Spain.
In Greece, there tends to be an emphasis on quality rather than quantity. Cold extraction of virgin olive oil in modern mills is the norm. This means a machine crushes the olives to extract the oil without using the heat and chemicals common in production of refined vegetable oils. (To be precise, the word “pressing” refers to what an old-fashioned stone mill and olive press do, not the action of more common modern machines.)
Rolling hills, valleys, and plains in various parts of Greece are covered with olive groves. There are times and places when the air is permeated with the smell of olives. So it is not surprising that around 60% of Greek agricultural land is covered by 120 to 170 million olive trees. Greek olive oil is an essential part of the culture, economy, and cuisine of the country today, as it has been for millennia.
This is an April 2025 update of an article originally published in 2016.
All businesses, organizations, and competitions involved with Greek olive oil, the Mediterranean diet, and/or agrotourism or food tourism in Greece, as well as others interested in supporting Greeks working in these sectors, are invited to consider the advertising opportunities on the Greek Liquid Gold: Authentic Extra Virgin Olive Oil website. The only wide-ranging English-language site focused on news and information from the Greek olive oil world, it has helped companies reach consumers in more than 220 countries around the globe.
