IOOC to launch campaign for olive oil in India
For decades the olive-oil trade has treated India as the great prize just out of reach: a vast population that admires the oil’s health halo yet almost never cooks with it. The gap is not ignorance — it is the deep logic of a cuisine built on other fats.
Every few years an olive-oil body announces a push into India, and the reasoning never changes: an enormous, growing middle class, rising health awareness, and a country that already treats olive oil with respect. What follows is usually slower than the press releases suggest, and the reason is worth understanding, because it says a lot about how olive oil actually travels into a foreign kitchen — not on health claims, but on habit.
A market everyone wants
India is the sort of number that makes marketers dizzy: a huge population, a fast-growing appetite for premium groceries, and a cultural memory that already files olive oil under good for you. Ayurvedic tradition and modern diet advice both give it a warm reception. But respect is not the same as use. Indians have long been happy to rub olive oil on skin and hair, or take a spoonful as a tonic, while cooking dinner in something else entirely. A market that buys your product as medicine is not yet a market that buys it as food.
The habit problem
Indian cooking is, above all, hot and assertive. Tempering spices in smoking oil, deep-frying, long bhuna-ing of onions and masala — these ask for a fat that shrugs off high heat and does not impose its own flavour. Mustard oil, groundnut oil, refined sunflower and, above all, ghee already do that job beautifully and cheaply. A grassy, peppery extra virgin is wasted in that pan: its delicate aromatics burn off, and its price tag stings. Changing a national cuisine is not a marketing task; culinary habits are among the most conservative things people own.
Where olive oil really fits
The honest route in is not to fight the tandoor but to slip alongside it. Olive oil earns a place in Indian kitchens the same way it did elsewhere: raw and cool. A light olive oil (refined, high smoke point, neutral) can handle everyday sauteing, while a real extra virgin belongs on salads, raita-adjacent dressings, drizzled over grilled paneer or finished dals. Sold that way — as a finishing oil and an everyday cooking oil for the lighter end of the repertoire — it stops competing with ghee and starts adding something. That is a slower story than a splashy campaign, but it is the one that sticks.
| Kitchen job | Traditional fat | Where olive oil fits |
|---|---|---|
| Tempering spices, deep-frying | Mustard oil, ghee, refined oils | Poor — delicate aromatics burn, cost too high |
| Everyday sauteing | Refined sunflower, groundnut | Light/refined olive oil works; neutral, high smoke point |
| Salads, raita-style dressings | Little tradition | Extra virgin shines — raw and cool |
| Finishing grilled paneer, dals | Ghee, butter | Extra virgin drizzle adds fruit and pepper |
What a buyer should take from it
- Judge olive oil in India by where it is used, not how much is sold — the raw, finishing role is the real beachhead.
- For high-heat Indian cooking, a light/refined olive oil makes sense; save extra virgin for cold uses.
- Treat health claims as the door, not the room — flavour and habit are what keep a bottle in the kitchen.
- Be sceptical of campaign-driven hype; adoption of a foreign fat is measured in decades.
Olive oil in India: common questions
Why don’t Indians cook more with olive oil?
Indian cooking is largely high-heat and boldly spiced, which suits mustard oil, groundnut oil and ghee. A delicate extra virgin burns off its aromatics and costs far more, so it rarely replaces the traditional fats at the stove.
Can you use olive oil for Indian food at all?
Yes — a light or refined olive oil handles everyday sauteing well, and extra virgin is lovely raw: over salads, grilled paneer, or drizzled on a finished dal.
Is olive oil healthier than ghee?
Both have a place. Olive oil is rich in monounsaturated fat and, if extra virgin, polyphenols; ghee is a traditional, heat-stable fat. Neither is a magic bullet — overall diet matters far more.
Which olive oil should an Indian kitchen buy?
Two bottles: a refined/light olive oil for cooking with heat, and a small bottle of fresh extra virgin, kept for raw finishing where its flavour can show.
Why do campaigns to sell olive oil in India move slowly?
Because cuisines change slowly. People adopt a foreign fat through habit and taste, not advertising, so real growth is measured over decades rather than a single season.
The mistake outsiders make with India is selling olive oil as a health product and expecting the stove to follow. It rarely does. The kitchens that actually keep a bottle are the ones that found a cold, raw job for it — a dressing, a drizzle, a finish — where its fruit and pepper are the point, not a liability. Sell an extra virgin for deep-frying and you have simply made an expensive, worse mustard oil. Meet the cuisine where it is relaxed, not where it is fierce, and the habit forms on its own.
An evergreen explainer on olive oil’s slow progress in the Indian market and how a foreign fat actually enters a cuisine.