What are the main olive oil producing countries?  

The main producers of olive oil are Spain, Italy, Greece, Tunisia, Turkey, Morocco, Portugal and Syria.

All of them are countries belonging to the Mediterranean basin. The production of these countries accounts for about 80% of world production.

Among them, Spain stands out as producing on average in the last 5 years more than 40% of the production worldwide.

The second most producing country is Italy, whose average over the last 5 years is 10% of the production worldwide.

Development of olive oil production by countries.

We have attached a graph below with the development of the production of olive oil over the last 30 years.

It should be noted that the countries that were world leaders in the production of olive oil continue to be so today. The olive tree is an eminently traditional crop with a long production cycle.

However, three aspects can be highlighted in the graph:

• Production of olive oil worldwide has more than doubled in 30 years.
• Spain is by far the leading producer, followed by Italy and Greece.
• The phenomenon of the alternation can be seen in the graph, that is, alternation of years with great production, followed by years with little production.

New producing countries

Due to the recognition of olive oil as one of the healthiest fats for our cardiovascular system, among other benefits, olive cultivation has interested many countries without an olive tradition.

Countries with potential for the cultivation of olive groves because they have areas with a Mediterranean climate have begun to produce olive oil. We can highlight Algeria, Argentina, Chile, United States (California), Australia, Egypt and China.

Little by little they are increasing their production, although today it is anecdotal with respect to the main producers.