The Greek olive oil Agricultural Cooperative Agioi Apostoloi in Laconia, in the southern Peloponnese, on Monday reported that it has sold the first wholesale quantity of locally produced olive oil of the 2024-2025 season, with the inaugural price at 10.20 euros per kilo.
This year’s first auction for the sale of early-harvest olive oil for the new season started at a base price of nine euros per kilo and ended at 10.20 euros per kilo. Five Greek and Italian processing and trading companies participated, with an Italian company being the highest bidder and purchasing a total of 51 tons.
Despite the first sale of the year usually being indicative of the coming olive oil season, it is still uncertain how Greek olive oil will fare this year, with the situation becoming clearer when other olive-producing regions enter the harvest and production stage.
As noted, the price that the first batch was sold for, reflects the exceptional quality of this year’s olive oil from this specific area. The high quality is because there were no infestations from the olive fly, and thus the quality of both the fruit and the olive oil is outstanding. The yields are also excellent, with 18-19 kilos of olive oil produced from every 100 kilos of fruit.
During the 2024-2025 season production in the region, as in most olive-producing areas of Greece, is expected to be at normal levels.
Signs of recovery are also seen in global olive oil production, which is expected to return to 3-3.2 million tons. Similarly, Greece’s production is estimated to reach 250,000 tons, up from 150,000 tons last year.
Greece is traditionally the world’s third largest olive oil producer after Spain and Italy. At the same time, Grecian ‘gold’ is considered as the finest in the world.