Canada Olive Oil Prices: Imports Up, Will Costs Fall?

The Current Situation

It’s easy to forget that olive oil is fundamentally an agricultural product. “It’s one harvest at a time,” explains Jimmy Nikolidakis, CEO of Groupe alimentaire Miron, a major importer sourcing 100% of its olive oil from Greece.

Greece ranks as the world’s third-largest producer, following Spain and Italy. The 2023 and 2024 harvests were significantly impacted by prolonged drought conditions.

“Producers we work with were yielding only 25% of their usual volume. They hadn’t seen anything like it in 25 years of harvesting,” says Darquise Mayer, owner of Olive & Olives, which operates four stores in the greater Montreal area. This highlights the vulnerability of agricultural supply chains to climate change.

Over the past three years, reduced production volumes drove prices upward. However, that trend is now reversing. As the harvest season concluded in producing countries at the beginning of 2025, inventories began to recover, leading to price declines.

Import Trends

Many importers capitalized on the anticipated price drop by increasing their orders. According to the International Olive Council, Canada is among the most avid importers of olive oil. Between October 2024 and July 2025, Canadian olive oil imports increased by 42%.

Groupe alimentaire Miron was among those significantly increasing purchases, doubling its volume of Greek olive oil following the forecast for 2025 harvests and prices. The importer estimates it brought in 500,000 liters this year, exclusively from Greece.

“We immediately saw a cost reduction in stores,” says Jimmy Nikolidakis, noting that prices on newly arrived products in Quebec were substantially reduced by 30% to 40% as early as last winter.

Sales are also up, he adds, as Quebec consumers become more knowledgeable and discerning about olive oil choices.

A Complex Variety

The world of olive oil is surprisingly complex.

“It’s complicated for the average consumer. You can find just about anything on the market,” explains Élaine Bélanger, Vice President of Operations and co-owner of Maison Orphée.

The Quebec-based company imports olive oils from various countries – Spain, Portugal, Argentina, and Tunisia – and bottles them locally.

In recent years, rising prices have positioned olive oil as a more premium product. “But there’s a limit to what people will pay,” Bélanger says. “It’s not gold, after all…”

The importer notes that climate change is complicating olive production – evidenced by the droughts of recent years.

Maison Orphée has also reduced the price of its bottles by approximately 20%. “We were able to pass the cost reductions on to our customers,” says Bélanger. “It depends on the size of the company.” The company followed the broader market trend downward. “We look at what our competitors are doing,” she admits.

Large Players and Small

While many bottle prices have fallen, this isn’t universally the case.

For Darquise Mayer of Olive & Olives, the current situation represents a return to normal. The price increases of recent years, reaching up to 40%, were challenging to manage. During that period, the retailer increased its oil prices by 10%. The remainder of the increase was absorbed throughout the supply chain, Mayer explains, from producer to retailer. “We had no choice, or we would have had to close our doors,” she says.

At La Belle Excuse, olive oil prices remain stable. The small company in Saint-Liguori, Quebec, benefits from a unique situation: all its oils come from the family-owned olive grove in Greece, shielding it from harvest-time price fluctuations.

Fluctuating prices from one harvest to the next create considerable confusion around olive oil, according to Justine Germain of Italian vineyard Marino – which also operates a 15-hectare olive grove.

“Global prices have fallen, but for a small artisanal producer like us, it barely makes a difference,” says Germain, who joined the family business in Agropoli last year. Price declines primarily affect large-volume producers, she explains.

“Our costs don’t depend on the international market, but on the climate, manual labor, organic certification, small volumes, and the family model,” she says. “And with climate change, producing olive oil is actually becoming more expensive: unstable yields, drought, disease, and more frequent interventions in the olive grove.”