History: Olives
Key events of the Olives topic, year by year.
- c. 5 600 BCEThe oldest olive oil: Kfar Samir
About 7,600–7,000 years ago, thousands of crushed olive stones were left at Kfar Samir, a now-submerged settlement off the Carmel coast — the earliest known evidence of olive oil production. Plant lipids in vessels of the same age from Ein Zippori in Galilee confirm that olives were used for oil. The fruit was probably still gathered from wild trees.
- c. 5 000 BCEOlive cultivation begins in the southern Levant
Pollen records show that by about 7,000 years ago the olive was clearly being cultivated in the southern Levant. Around 6,400 years ago it was grown at Teleilat Ghassul.
- c. 4 700 BCEFirst signs of preserved olives
About 6,700–6,500 years ago at Hishuley Carmel, many olive stones were left in elliptical stone structures. The review's authors see this as the first sign of salting or preserving the fruit — in other words, the first table olives.
- c. 3 600 BCEThe olive becomes a key crop of the Early Bronze Age
In the Early Bronze Age, around 3600 BC, the olive became an economically important crop. By the 4th–3rd millennia BC trade in table olives and oil was extensive, and more and more oil presses were built to meet demand from Old Kingdom Egypt.
- c. 3 200 BCEOlive oil and wine on Minoan Crete
Around 3200–2700 BC (Early Minoan I), traces of olive oil and wine were left in pottery at the hilltop fort of Aphrodite's Kephali in eastern Crete; gas chromatography of the sherds revealed them. The authors call it the earliest documented presence of both products on Crete.
- c. 1 400 BCEThe olive trade goes international
In the 14th century BC, tablets from Ugarit and Late Bronze Age shipwrecks show that the olive trade was already international.
- c. 1 300 BCEThe olive on Linear B tablets
At the Palace of Nestor near Chora in Messinia, 1,200 Linear B tablets with records of the olive were found. They date from the Mycenaean period, the 14th–13th centuries BC.
Source: EU: Single document, PDO «Kalamata» olive oil, OJ C 186, 26.6.2012
- c. 100 г.Baetican oil and Monte Testaccio
In the 1st–3rd centuries AD, Rome received olive oil from Baetica (today's Andalusia) in single-use globular Dressel 20 amphorae, about 80 cm tall and 60 cm wide; some 100 workshops are known along the Guadalquivir and the Genil. The broken jars built Rome's Monte Testaccio, a mound about 50 m high and 1 km round, roughly 85 % Dressel 20. Infrared analysis has confirmed oil residues in 3rd-century amphorae from the hill.
Source: Pérez González J., Heredero Berzosa J., Aguilera Martín A.J. Collectanea Philologica 2022, XXV (CEIPAC, Universitat de Barcelona), Tarquini G. et al. Identification of oil residues in Roman amphorae (Monte Testaccio, Rome). Talanta 2014, 118
- c. 1750 г.The olive arrives in California
In the 18th century, Spanish Franciscan missionaries brought the olive to California and planted it at every coastal mission south of San Francisco. The ‘Mission’ cultivar descends from these orchards.
Source: Lazicki P., Geisseler D. Olive Production in California (UC Davis / CDFA FREP)
- 1947 г.Olive branches on the UN flag
On 20 October 1947 the UN General Assembly adopted the organization's flag by resolution 167 (II). It carries the UN emblem — a map of the world in a wreath of crossed olive branches, approved on 7 December 1946 by resolution 92 (I).
- 1956 г.The first International Olive Oil Agreement
In 1956 the first International Agreement on Olive Oil was concluded under the auspices of the United Nations, to stabilise and expand the trade.
- 1959 г.The International Olive Council is founded
In 1959 the International Olive Oil Council, today the IOC, was set up in Madrid. The first signatories were Belgium, France, Greece, Israel, Libya, Morocco, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia and the United Kingdom.
Source: International Olive Council — Mission & Basic Text, IOC Market Newsletter No 100 (December 2015)
- 1986 г.Table olives join the international agreement
The 1986 international agreement covered table olives as well as olive oil for the first time. Further agreements followed in 2005 and 2015; the latest has been in force since 1 January 2017.
- 1991 г.EEC Regulation No 2568/91 on olive oil
On 11 July 1991 the Commission adopted Regulation (EEC) No 2568/91 on the characteristics of olive oil and the methods of analysis. For more than 30 years it was the basis for checking olive oil grades in the EU.
Source: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104, recitals and Art. 13–14
- 2010 г.The Mediterranean diet joins the UNESCO list
In November 2010 in Nairobi, UNESCO inscribed the Mediterranean diet of Spain, Greece, Italy and Morocco on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. The description speaks of a diet based mainly on olive oil, cereals, fresh or dried fruit and vegetables.
- 2013 г.The Mediterranean diet inscription is extended
In 2013 UNESCO inscribed the Mediterranean diet again, now for seven countries: Cyprus, Croatia, Greece, Italy, Morocco, Portugal and Spain.
Source: UNESCO ICH — Mediterranean diet (inscribed in 2013, 8.COM)
- 2013 г.Xylella fastidiosa in the olive groves of Apulia
In October 2013 the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, which causes olive quick decline syndrome, was found near Lecce in Apulia — its first appearance in Europe. By 2017 about 23,000 ha of Apulian olives were affected.
- 2022 г.New EU rules for olive oil
On 29 July 2022 the Commission adopted Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104 and Implementing Regulation 2022/2105. Published on 4 November 2022, they replaced Regulations 2568/91 and 29/2012.
Source: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104 (OJ L 284, 4.11.2022)
- 2024 г.A record 2024/25 season
According to the IOC, the world produced about 3.57 million tonnes of olive oil in 2024/25 — the most ever, 5 % above the previous record of 3.416 million tonnes in 2021/22. Table olives also hit a record: 3.318 million tonnes against 3.284 million in 2017/18.
Source: IOC — World Olive Day dossier (November 2025), IOC — Olive sector statistics, December 2025 and forecasts