The International Olive Council focuses on India for imports
India buys a fraction of the olive oil its size suggests it might — and knows it mostly as a beauty product. The story of why the trade keeps courting India, and keeps running into the same wall, tells you how olive oil actually spreads.
Every so often the olive trade rediscovers India, and the headline is always the same : a giant, fast-growing middle class that could, in theory, drink a great deal of olive oil. The reality is stubborner. India already knows olive oil — but as something you rub into your hair and skin, not something you cook desi khana in. Bridging that gap has been the quiet, decades-long project of the International Olive Council, and it is a useful lesson in how a foreign fat wins a new kitchen.
Who the International Olive Council is
The IOC is an intergovernmental body founded in 1959 under the United Nations, headquartered in Madrid, grouping the major producing and some consuming countries. It sets the standards that define grades like extra virgin, runs quality checks, and — relevant here — promotes olive oil in markets it wants to grow. Picking a ‘focus’ country and pouring promotion into it is a standard IOC move ; it did exactly this in the United States decades ago, with striking results.
Why India is such hard ground
Three walls stand in the way. First, price : imported olive oil is dear, and heavy import duties make it dearer, so it reads as a luxury against home-grown mustard, groundnut and sunflower oils. Second, heat : Indian cooking runs on high-temperature frying and tempering, where a delicate extra virgin is wasted and misunderstood. Third, habit and flavour : the pungent, grassy taste of good oil simply is not what a mustard-oil palate expects. The beauty-product association, oddly, is both a foot in the door and a ceiling — people know the name, but file it under cosmetics.
Can India grow its own olives?
The more interesting idea is not importing oil but growing olives — and there have been real trials in the semi-arid state of Rajasthan, whose dry heat and soils were judged similar to parts of the Mediterranean and the Middle East. Olive Cultivation in Rajasthan has produced fruit and some oil, proving the tree can grow there. Whether it can do so at a quality and cost that competes is another question ; young groves in a new climate take decades to prove themselves, and the economics are unforgiving. It is a genuine experiment, not yet a settled success.
What it tells you about olive oil
- Olive oil spreads by habit, not health claims — people adopt it when it fits how they already cook.
- Price and duty keep it a luxury in many markets, capping demand more than taste does.
- The beauty-product reputation opens the door but can trap the oil outside the kitchen.
- Growing olives in new, dry regions is plausible but slow — a decades-long bet, not a quick win.
Olive oil in India: common questions
What is the International Olive Council?
An intergovernmental body founded in 1959 under the UN, based in Madrid. It sets olive-oil standards, checks quality, and promotes olive oil in markets it wants to grow.
Why doesn’t India use much olive oil?
Price and import duties make it a luxury, high-heat Indian cooking suits it poorly, and its pungent taste is unfamiliar to a mustard- and groundnut-oil palate.
Why do Indians associate olive oil with beauty?
It arrived first as a hair and skin product, valued for moisturising, long before it was pitched as a cooking oil — so many file it under cosmetics.
Can olives grow in India?
Yes — trials in semi-arid Rajasthan have produced fruit and some oil. Whether they can compete on quality and cost is still being tested.
Will India become a big olive-oil market?
Possibly, slowly. Growth depends on price, on olive oil fitting real Indian cooking, and on shedding the ‘luxury cosmetic’ image — none of which changes overnight.
Original background on the IOC’s interest in India and Rajasthan olive trials ; figures given qualitatively as they change year to year.
The health-benefit pitch rarely wins a new market on its own ; habit does. Olive oil took off in America not because people read a study but because it slotted into how they already ate — pasta, salads, restaurants. India is harder precisely because high-heat cooking leaves little room for a delicate finishing oil. Watch the Rajasthan groves, not the promotion budgets : if India ever grows its own affordable oil, that is what will finally move it from the bathroom shelf to the kitchen.
Original evergreen piece on the IOC, the Indian market and Rajasthan olive trials ; no third-party article reproduced.