The reality of extra-virgin olive oil prices

In recent decades, the global demand for extra virgin olive oil has grown significantly. This increasing popularity has led to a much wider and more diversified commercial offer: supermarkets and discount stores now offer a broad range of brands and price categories.

Italy, however, consumes much more olive oil than it produces, making imports inevitable. The main countries from which we import are Spain, Greece, and Tunisia.

In recent years, Spanish production has suffered a sharp decline, reducing European stocks and causing the significant price increases we have witnessed. Today, global production is rising again and prices are inevitably decreasing, although not enough to justify certain levels — both at retail and wholesale — that we still see on the market.

To better understand the relationship between price and quality, we can refer to the weekly oil market report published by Teatro Naturale (https://www.teatronaturale.it/). In the table below, we show the most recent data (15/11/2025) compared with those from about a year earlier (24/11/2024).

Prices refer to origin and wholesale markets, ex-works/arrival, VAT excluded. Please note that the market report (Table 1) lists prices by weight (Kg) and we converted them into prices per liter (Table 2). To calculate the price per liter, you must multiply the price per kilo by 0.916.

To understand what the actual prices we pay should be, we must add the selling costs to these prices (VAT excluded). One year ago, Il Fatto Alimentare (https://ilfattoalimentare.it) estimated an additional cost of about 1 Euro:

Of course, in addition to all this, we must add the distributor’s margin (or the retailer's margin, in the case of large-scale distribution), which — although often limited — still does not justify certain extra virgin olive oil prices seen on the market...

To assess the true quality of an authentic extra virgin olive oil, several key parameters must be considered:

1. Phenolic content
   It can range from about 60 mg/kg in low-quality oils to over 500 mg/kg in high-quality oils.
2. Acidity level
   High-quality oils show values around 0.19% oleic acid, while mediocre oils can exceed 0.60%. Legally, extra virgin olive oil must remain below 0.8%.
3. Aromatic profile
   Low-cost oils often show notes of ethyl acetate, acetaldehyde, acetic acid, and ethanol — compounds typical of olives stored for too long before milling, which significantly reduces sensory quality.
4. Peroxide value
   This parameter measures primary oxidation: exposure to oxygen, thermal stress, and poor storage. By law, it should be lower than 20 meq O₂/kg, but values can be interpreted as follows:
   
   • Low (0–10) → very fresh, well-processed oil
   • Medium (10–15) → stable, decent-quality oil
   • High (15–20) → poor-quality oil or one entering early oxidation

And unfortunately, there are several ways to “mask” peroxide values, making it harder for consumers to distinguish the true quality of an oil.