Why is olive oil so expensive now? Here’s what to know

If you've noticed higher prices for extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) at the grocery store, you're probably not alone. The price for the item has skyrocketed in recent months.

If you’ve noticed higher prices for extra virgin olive oil (EVOO) at the grocery store, you’re probably not alone. The price for the item has skyrocketed in recent months, experts say, due to low supply from poor harvests.

Sylvain Charlebois, a professor of food distribution at Dalhousie University, told Global News that according to his data, the price has gone up 15.2 per cent between January and late March. It now costs on average $16 for a one litre bottle of EVOO in Canada compared to $14 in January.

According to Statistics Canada, one litre of olive oil was around $9 on average in Canada since 2017, until in January 2023 the price broke through $10, and has been on a rise since, going up from $12.81 in October 2023 to $14.81 in November.

“Prices right now are skyrocketing,” Charlebois said. “Some of these changes (in prices) are pretty massive.”

He said the low supply has everything to do with climate change that has created “unprecedented” weather. Europe has faced droughts for the past three years which have resulted in worsening harvests of olives. Charlebois said there was a huge drought in Portugal, Spain and Greece, which are large producers of EVOO, and the summer was “devastating” for production.

The lower supply has driven the prices up.

He doesn’t expect conditions to improve soon, either, keeping prices high.

International olive oil expert Fil Bucchino told Global News that Spain’s production of olive oil was down 62 per cent last year. Spain is the biggest producer of the product, so its lower production created “havoc” in pricing worldwide, he said.