Greece Produces 8% of World’s Olive Oil. Holds Under 3% of Export Market
Greece produces between 7.5% and 8.5% of the world's olive oil, yet its share of EU olive oil exports to non-EU countries sits at just 2.9%, according to Eurostat data covering October 2025 through February 2026. Portugal, which produces less than half of what Greece produces, holds more than triple the market share at 10%. Spain dominates with 56%.
Greek olive oil export revenues fell 14.4% in the first quarter of 2026, dropping from 298.3 million euros to 255.4 million euros, according to the Panhellenic Exporters Association. This happened while the broader food and live animals export category grew 9.4% over the same period, making the olive oil drop even harder to explain away.
Manolis Karpadakis, vice president of the Crete Exporters Association, pointed to one core problem: too much Greek olive oil is exported in bulk rather than as packaged, branded product. Without branded exports, Greek producers capture less value and build no brand recognition abroad. He noted that Spain and Italy run long-term, market-specific promotional campaigns, while Greece has no equivalent national-level program.
Alkis Kalabokas, president of the Panhellenic Exporters Association, was blunt about the causes. He said Greece has no long-term olive oil strategy, fragmented promotional efforts, and has failed to capitalize on one major competitive advantage: Greece produces the highest percentage of extra virgin olive oil as a share of total production of any country in the world. He also cited the collapse of many cooperatives, which led to lost clients and markets that private companies have not been able to recover.
Both industry leaders are calling for active national-level associations to run coordinated promotional programs, both for foreign markets and domestically. The Crete Exporters Association is currently running a PDO-PGI olive oil promotion program in the UK and Switzerland, now in its second year, but that effort is regional, not national.
