olives101OLIVE NEWS & INFORMATION

Every olive on earth, and the oil it becomes.

An encyclopedia, true stories the sellers won’t tell you, and notes in two languages. From someone who spent twenty years in the trade and has nothing left to sell.

The centerpiece

The oldest olive tree in the world

In a village in Crete stands an olive tree perhaps 4,000 years old — still making olives. A timeline of everything it has outlived… and the one thing that might finally get it.

Read the story →

Latest articles · les dernières

News archive →
EN

An Early Warning: Spain Sells Down Fast as the Bloom Falters

In June 2026, cheap oil is everywhere — but Spain has already sold most of this year’s crop, and early field data points to a poor…

EN

“Bottled in Italy” Doesn’t Mean What You Think

The three most valuable words in olive oil tell you where the glass was filled — not where the olives grew.

EN

Why Olive Oil Prices Spiked

Olive oil hit record prices in 2023–24 because of drought in the Mediterranean — but olives grow on five continents now (California, Texas, Australia, NZ, Chile,…

EN

Year’s End 2025: Cheap Oil and Hard Questions

As 2025 closed, the cupboards were full and prices low — but cheap Tunisian imports and below-cost farming had the industry asking what a fair market…

EN

Record Output, Record Exports — and Growers in the Red

By late 2025, Spain was producing and exporting at record levels — yet its growers tallied some €1.9 billion in losses, selling below cost for a…

EN

The 2025/26 Harvest: Back to Plenty?

Heading into the 2025/26 season, forecasts pointed to a big rebound harvest — good news for the cupboard, and a fresh headache for the growers who…

EN

The First 2025/26 Forecast: Easing From the Peak

In autumn 2025, the IOC’s first 2025/26 estimate saw world output easing about 4% from the record rebound year — a hot, dry summer trimming Spain’s…

EN

Exports Surge as Values Collapse

In August 2025, EU olive-oil exports rose while their value fell more than 40% — the clearest sign yet that the great price spike had fully…

EN

Spanish Olive Oil Exports Top a Million Tons as Prices Fall

By mid-2025, with the harvest recovered, Spain’s olive oil was flooding back onto world markets — exports above a million tonnes, and prices tumbling toward pre-crisis…

EN

US Olive-Oil Imports Double to a Record

In June 2025, US olive-oil imports roughly doubled year-on-year to a record monthly high as cheap, plentiful oil flooded back — the demand side of the…

EN

The Olive Oil Price Crash of 2025

After two years of record highs, 2025 brought the opposite shock: a rebound harvest sent olive oil prices tumbling — and left many farmers unable to…

EN

The 2025 World Olive Oil Awards

With the worst of the crisis passing, the 2025 World Olive Oil Competition rolled out its results — a fresh map of who is pressing the…

The exposés · what the sellers don’t tell you

📖

The encyclopedia · one page per olive

Browse all →

❀ The lavender room

Its beauty, its origins, its history — the varieties, the fields, the pictures.

“What does lavender have to do with olives? Well — I’m glad you asked. I just love both, and to me they’re the perfect match.”

Step into the lavender room →