What “price at origin” means for olive oil
When the trade talks about the price of olive oil, it almost always means the price at origin: what bulk oil sells for when it first changes hands, from the mill or cooperative that made it to the packer, refiner or trader who buys it. In Spanish it is the “precio en origen”. It is the figure the rest of the chain is built on.
What the price at origin covers
It is a price for oil in bulk, per kilo, sold by the producer: a mill, a cooperative or an olive grower who has had the oil pressed. The buyer is the first link after production: a packer who will bottle it, a refinery, or a trader who will resell it.
It is quoted by grade (extra virgin, virgin, lampante) because the grade decides the price. Delivery terms vary from contract to contract; the price at origin describes the oil at its source, before it travels.
What it leaves out
Everything that happens after the first sale: transport, bottling, labels, the brand, the retailer's margin and, for the shopper, VAT. That is why a litre on a supermarket shelf costs far more than a kilo at origin.
Price at origin, export price, shelf price
Three prices are often mixed up in the news. They sit at different points of the chain:
| Price | Where in the chain | What is added |
|---|---|---|
| At origin | first sale of bulk oil, at the source | nothing yet |
| Export | oil leaving the producing country | transport to the port, containers or flexitanks, export costs, the exporter's margin |
| Shelf | bottle bought by a shopper | bottling, brand, distribution, retailer's margin, VAT |
Who records it
In Spain, the Poolred system collects the price, quantity and characteristics of bulk olive oil sales at origin. The European Commission publishes weekly prices from representative markets in the producing member states. In Italy, chambers of commerce publish regular price lists for their markets.
Each of these records prices at origin, but on different days, from different samples and in different ways, which is why two reports on the same week rarely show exactly the same figure.
How OleaIndex reports it
The OleaIndex prices for Spain, Italy and Greece are prices at origin for bulk oil, in euros per kilo, each combined from several sources and shown with the date it was measured.
Tunisia is the exception, and the page says so: its figure is a calculated export price, built from the field price at the mill plus the cost of a flexitank, tax and a margin, converted at the Central Bank of Tunisia rate of the day. It answers a different question: what Tunisian oil costs when it leaves the country.
- Poolred, the Spanish price information system for olive oil at origin
- European Commission, olive oil: market situation and prices
- OleaIndex methodology: sources and how each price is calculated
Prices by origin and grade, every figure dated: OleaIndex prices · how they are calculated