California Table olive growers to receive higher prices
A table olive’s price has almost nothing to do with how it tastes and almost everything to do with how big it is. Understanding the sizing ladder — from super-colossal down to cull — explains why California’s growers live and die by two varieties and a good bloom.
Most people assume a good olive is priced on flavour. For the table-olive grower it is priced on calibre — the physical size of the fruit. California’s canned black-ripe olive industry runs on a strict sizing grade: petite, small, medium, large, extra-large, jumbo, colossal, super-colossal. The bigger the fruit, the more it fetches per ton, and the gap is enormous — a super-colossal Sevillano can be worth several times an extra-large one, while undersized ‘culls’ are worth almost nothing. That single fact shapes which varieties get planted and how a whole harvest is judged.
Two varieties, and why
California table olives are dominated by two cultivars: Manzanillo, a Spanish variety that makes up the great majority of the crop, and Sevillano, a much larger-fruited olive prized for the top of the size range. Manzanillo is the reliable all-rounder; Sevillano is the one that produces the giant colossal and super-colossal grades that command the best prices. Growers plant them because the canneries want them, and because they hit the sizes the American consumer expects to see on a pizza or in a relish dish. Flavour, in this trade, is almost a secondary consideration to shape and size.
Why a crop can halve overnight
The olive is famous for alternate bearing — a heavy year followed by a light one — but weather makes it far worse. A spring frost during bloom, erratic hot-cold swings, or high winds while the tree is flowering can leave a ‘spotty set’ and slash a crop by half. When that happens, harvesting the thin, scattered fruit can cost more than it is worth, so some growers simply leave it. This is why a table-olive grower can face both higher prices and a smaller cheque in the same year: the price per ton rises, but there are far fewer tons to sell.
What it means for what you buy
The canned black ‘California ripe’ olive on your pizza is a genuinely mild, industrially processed product — lye-cured, air-oxidised black, and canned. There is nothing wrong with it for what it is, but do not confuse it with a naturally cured, brine-fermented table olive from the Mediterranean, which tastes of something. If you want flavour rather than uniform mildness, look past the can to a naturally cured olive; if you want big, mild and cheap, the California grade ladder is exactly what you are buying.
| Main varieties | Manzanillo (bulk), Sevillano (large-fruited) |
|---|---|
| Price driver | Fruit size / calibre, not flavour |
| Size ladder | Petite → colossal → super-colossal |
| Culls | Undersized fruit, near-worthless |
| Crop risk | Alternate bearing + frost/wind at bloom |
| Typical product | Canned black-ripe (lye-cured) olive |
| For flavour instead | Naturally brine-cured Mediterranean olives |
| California canned black-ripe | Naturally cured (brine) | |
|---|---|---|
| Curing | Lye, then air-oxidised black | Slow brine fermentation |
| Flavour | Very mild, uniform | Fruity, briny, variable |
| Priced on | Size grade | Variety and quality |
| Typical use | Pizza, relish, salad garnish | Eaten on their own, mezze |
| Colour | Uniform matte black | Green to purple to black |
Reading a table-olive shelf
- Remember size is calibre, not quality — ‘colossal’ tells you nothing about flavour.
- For taste, choose naturally cured olives over canned black-ripe.
- A giant, uniformly black, perfectly mild olive is almost always a lye-cured, canned one.
- A poor harvest year can mean higher prices and scarcer supply at once — that is normal for the crop.
Table olive prices and sizes: common questions
Why are table olives priced by size?
The canning trade grades olives by calibre — from petite up to super-colossal — and pays far more per ton for bigger fruit. Size, not flavour, sets the grower’s price.
What are Manzanillo and Sevillano?
The two dominant California table-olive varieties: Manzanillo makes up the bulk of the crop, while the larger-fruited Sevillano supplies the top colossal and super-colossal grades.
Why do olive crops swing so much year to year?
Olives naturally alternate heavy and light years, and a spring frost, wild temperature swings or wind at bloom can halve a crop by leaving a patchy fruit set.
Are canned black California olives real olives?
Yes, but they are lye-cured and air-oxidised to a uniform black, then canned — a mild, industrial product quite different from a naturally brine-cured Mediterranean olive.
Should I buy the biggest olives?
Not for flavour. ‘Colossal’ is a size grade, not a taste grade. For flavour, choose naturally cured olives regardless of size.
Here is what the size ladder hides: a grower’s cheque rides on calibre, not character, so the whole trade chases big fruit and a clean bloom rather than flavour. That is why ‘colossal’ on a jar tells you nothing worth knowing about taste. And a bad year is doubly cruel — a frost at bloom can halve the crop, prices per ton climb, but there is far less to sell. If you actually want an olive that tastes of something, walk past the giant canned black ones and buy naturally brine-cured fruit, whatever its size.
Drawn from California table-olive grading and pricing background; the specific 2008 figures were a dated news item.