🫒 Olives
The fruit of the olive tree, pressed for oil or cured and eaten as table olives.
Olives are the fruit of the olive tree, an evergreen of lands with hot, dry summers, grown mostly between 30° and 45° latitude. The fruit has only 2.6–6 % sugar but 12–30 % oil and bitter oleuropein, so it is hardly ever eaten off the branch.
Most of the crop, about 90 % by an FAO estimate, is pressed for oil; the rest becomes table olives. Provisional figures from the International Olive Council (IOC) put world olive oil output at 3.57 million tonnes in 2024/25, with 3.44 million forecast for 2025/26. Roughly three fifths comes from the EU, and Spain alone supplies about 40 %. Table olives reached about 3.3 million tonnes, with around 3 million expected for 2025/26.
Olives have been pressed for a very long time. The earliest evidence is thousands of crushed stones at Kfar Samir, a submerged settlement off the Carmel coast in Israel, about 7600–7000 years old. By roughly 7000 years ago the olive was clearly grown in orchards. Where it was domesticated is still debated; the Levant and the eastern Mediterranean are the usual candidates.
Curing removes the bitterness. In the Spanish, or Sevillian, style green fruit goes into a weak lye solution (2–3.5 %) and then into brine, where lactic acid bacteria ferment it. In the Greek style black olives lie for months in strong 8–10 % brine with no lye.
Why it matters to you. EU retail may offer only four categories of olive oil: extra virgin, virgin, a blend of refined and virgin oils, and olive-pomace oil. Category and origin appear together in the main field of vision, and origin is compulsory for extra virgin and virgin. The label has to say “store away from light and heat”, and retail containers hold up to 5 litres, with a closure that cannot be resealed once opened. Table olives are salty: on EU nutrition labels “salt” is sodium × 2.5. Green olives have 1,560 mg of sodium per 100 g, while the WHO advises adults to stay under 2,000 mg a day.
On health, the EU allows one claim specific to the oil: its polyphenols help protect blood lipids from oxidative stress, provided 20 g of oil contains at least 5 mg of hydroxytyrosol and related compounds. Other effects, such as on cholesterol or blood pressure, were not established by EFSA in 2025.
Composition per 100 g
| Fat | 15.3 g |
|---|---|
| Protein | 1.03 g |
| Carbohydrates | 3.84 g |
| Energy | 145 kcal |
| Calcium | 52 mg |
Source: USDA FoodData Central: Olives, pickled, canned or bottled, green
What it includes
Links
- Where it comes from
- 🌳 Olive tree
- Packed in
- 🍷 Amphora, 🍷 Pithos
- What is made from it
- 🫒 Olive oil, 🫒 Table olives, 🏷️ Extra virgin olive oil, 🏷️ Virgin olive oil, 🏷️ Lampante olive oil
- Used in
- 🏛️ Mediterranean diet, 🥗 Salad
- Where it is stored or sold
- 🏪 Shop
- Who works with it
- 👩🌾 Olive grower, 🧑🌾 Farmer
- What it contains
- 🧪 Oleuropein
- Images and sayings
- 🕊️ Olive branch, 🏛️ Athena and the olive
- Associations
- 🕊️ Olive branch, 🥗 Salad
- Traditions
- 🧑🤝🧑 Greeks, 🌍 Southern Europe, 🧑🤝🧑 Italians, 🧑🤝🧑 Palestinians, 🧑🤝🧑 Lebanese, 🧑🤝🧑 Moroccans, 🌍 North Africa, 🌍 Anatolia and the Middle East
- In other topics
- 🍷 Wine, 🧫 Lactic acid bacteria, 🥛 Milk, 🍷 Fermentation
Frequently asked questions
What are olives?
The fruit of the olive tree. Fresh olives are bitter because of oleuropein, so they are either pressed for oil or cured in lye or brine and eaten as table olives.
How much olive oil does the world produce, and where?
Provisional IOC figures give 3.57 million tonnes for 2024/25, with 3.44 million forecast for 2025/26. Spain leads by far with 1.42 million tonnes; Türkiye and Tunisia came next that season. The order after Spain shifts from year to year because olive trees alternate heavy and light crops.
Is it true that you can't fry with olive oil?
No. In a deep-frying study (potatoes at about 170 °C), extra virgin olive oil resisted oxidation better than ordinary “olive oil” and lasted longer: 25.25 hours against 21.5. The smoke point of virgin oils depends mainly on acidity: the fewer free fatty acids, the higher it is.
Is it true that black olives are just ripe green ones?
Not always. Green, turning-colour and black olives really are one fruit at different stages of ripeness. But Californian-style “black” olives are green or half-ripe fruit darkened by oxidation in an alkaline solution, with the colour fixed by ferrous gluconate or lactate.
What should I look for on an olive oil label, and how do I store it?
Look for the category and the origin side by side in the main field of vision. A harvest year means all the oil comes from that one harvest. Keep the bottle away from light and heat: the warning is compulsory in the EU because both spoil the oil's quality.
Comparisons
- Extra virgin vs virgin olive oil: what's the difference
- Extra virgin vs refined olive oil: what's the difference
- Green vs black olives: what's the difference
- Seville-style vs Greek-style olives: what's the difference
- Olive oil vs sunflower oil: what's the difference
- Olive oil vs butter: what's the difference
- Olive-pomace oil vs virgin olive oil: what's the difference
Recipes
History
- c. 5 600 BCE — The oldest olive oil: Kfar Samir
- c. 5 000 BCE — Olive cultivation begins in the southern Levant
- c. 4 700 BCE — First signs of preserved olives
- c. 3 600 BCE — The olive becomes a key crop of the Early Bronze Age
- c. 3 200 BCE — Olive oil and wine on Minoan Crete
- c. 1 400 BCE — The olive trade goes international
- c. 1 300 BCE — The olive on Linear B tablets
- c. 100 г. — Baetican oil and Monte Testaccio
- c. 1750 г. — The olive arrives in California
- 1947 г. — Olive branches on the UN flag
Routes
What to read next
- 🏷️ Extra virgin olive oil — The top grade: oil obtained only by mechanical means, with no taste defects and acidity up to 0.8%.
- 🥗 Salad — A dish of chopped vegetables or other foods, often dressed with olive oil.
- 🕊️ Olive branch — A branch of the olive tree, an ancient symbol of peace still seen on emblems and flags.
- 🌍 Southern Europe — Italy, Greece, Spain: mozzarella, ricotta, pecorino, feta.
- 🧑🤝🧑 Greeks — The people of Greece in the southern Balkans and on Mediterranean islands; their main cheese is feta from sheep's milk, protected in the EU.
Sources
- International Olive Council: olive sector statistics, December 2025
- International Olive Council: Table olives
- EUR-Lex: Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/2104 on olive oil marketing standards
- EUR-Lex: Regulation (EU) No 1308/2013, Annex VII, Part VIII — olive oil categories
- EUR-Lex: Regulation (EU) No 432/2012 — authorised health claims (olive oil polyphenols)
- Barazani O., Dag A., Dunseth Z. The history of olive cultivation in the southern Levant. Frontiers in Plant Science, 2023