The Year Olive Oil Got Cheap: The 2019 Glut
Before the shortage there was a glut. A flood of cheap oil from new super-high-density hedgerow groves — machine-picked at scale — sent prices tumbling and lulled everyone into thinking olive oil would always be cheap. It is the modern industry in a nutshell.
It is easy to forget now, but before olive oil became a luxury it became a bargain. In one stretch the price of extra virgin fell by almost half in under a year. The cause was not a bumper weather year but a structural change: a flood of cheap oil from new super-high-density hedgerow groves in Spain and Portugal, planted with small, fast-fruiting varieties and harvested by machine at scale. It is the modern industry in a single story — a new way of growing olives that swung the whole world market.
What super-high-density growing is
Traditional olives are widely spaced trees, many of them old, often picked by hand on slopes a machine cannot reach. Super-high-density (SHD) does the opposite: thousands of small trees per hectare, trained into continuous hedgerows on flat ground and harvested by straddle machines that drive over the rows like a grape harvester. It suits compact, precocious, productive varieties — Arbequina above all, with Arbosana and a few others — that fruit young and take to mechanical picking. The result is far more oil, far cheaper, far faster.
How one idea moved the whole market
That efficiency reshaped global supply. When SHD plantings matured, they poured cheap, consistent oil into the market and pushed prices down hard — the 2019-style glut. It also lulled the world into a dangerous assumption: that olive oil would always be abundant and cheap. Then the droughts arrived, the traditional heartland faltered, and the glut flipped to famine within a few short years. The same industrial abundance that made oil cheap had quietly hidden how fragile the older, weather-exposed supply still was.
The hidden cost of cheap hedgerow oil
A glut sounds like good news, but rock-bottom prices punish the people who make the most characterful oil. Small, traditional growers tending old hillside groves by hand simply cannot compete with an industrial hedgerow on price. SHD oil is often clean, mild and perfectly good — but a world that buys only on price loses the distinctive regional and varietal oils that a hand-tended grove produces. Whether oil is too cheap or too dear, it is the honest, traditional producer who gets squeezed. A fair, stable price is what keeps both kinds of grove alive. See the true cost of an olive and the encyclopedia.
| Feature | Super-high-density (SHD) | Traditional grove |
|---|---|---|
| Trees per hectare | Thousands, in hedgerows | Few, widely spaced |
| Harvest | By straddle machine | Often by hand |
| Yield & cost | High yield, low cost | Lower yield, higher cost |
| Character | Clean, mild, consistent | Distinctive, regional, varietal |
What to take from the glut
- Understand that a farming method, not just the weather, can swing the world price of oil.
- Read a glut as fragile good news : cheap abundance can hide how exposed traditional supply still is.
- Remember rock-bottom prices squeeze small growers hardest, and thin out distinctive regional oils.
- Value a fair, stable price : it is what keeps both hedgerow and hillside groves alive.
The SHD revolution and the glut: common questions
What is super-high-density olive growing?
A modern system with thousands of small trees per hectare, trained into continuous hedgerows on flat ground and harvested by straddle machines. It suits compact, precocious varieties like Arbequina and produces far more oil, far more cheaply.
Why did it make oil cheap?
Because it dramatically raises yield and cuts harvesting cost. As SHD plantings matured, they flooded the market with cheap, consistent oil, pushing prices down sharply — the glut.
Is SHD oil bad?
No — it is often clean, mild and perfectly good everyday oil. The concern is not quality but variety: a market that buys only on price loses the distinctive regional oils that hand-tended groves produce.
How did a glut become a shortage?
The cheap abundance lulled everyone into assuming oil would always be cheap. Then droughts hit the traditional, weather-exposed heartland, and within a few years the glut flipped to famine.
Who loses when oil is too cheap?
Small, traditional growers tending old hillside groves by hand, who cannot match an industrial hedgerow on price. A fair, stable price — not the lowest one — is what keeps their groves alive.
This is the modern industry in a nutshell: a new, efficient way of growing olives can swing the whole world market. The super-high-density revolution made oil cheaper and more abundant for a while — and lulled everyone into thinking olive oil would always be cheap. Then the droughts arrived, and the glut became a famine. A glut sounds like good news, but rock-bottom prices punish the small, traditional growers who can’t compete with industrial hedgerows. A fair, stable price is what actually keeps good oil — and good groves — alive.
Drawn from market reporting on the price fall and on super-high-density (hedgerow) planting in Spain and Portugal.