Why You Might Want to Stock Up on Olive Oil

Increased prices and a low supply of this pantry staple have people talking.

Trader Joe’s recently experienced an olive oil shortage, leaving shelves bare and customers confused. One frustrated shopper posted on a recent Reddit thread, saying, “What’s going on with all olive oil at TJ?” The customer then described going to a Staten Island store followed by another location in Queens where “there was not one bottle of olive oil.”

This lack of olive oil at Trader Joe's and some interesting Reddit comments about a possible draught in Spain got us thinking: Is this a TJ's problem or a wider one? We spoke to two olive oil business experts to find out.

Is There an Olive Oil Shortage?

George Gyftakis is the founder of Little Gypsy Farms, a farm-direct producer who specializes in craft estate-grown extra virgin olive oil from Greece.

Like many producers of artisan products, Gyftakis says disruptions to the market started during Covid when labor and shipping got halted. There seem to be other issues to contend with, such as climate change, drought, and extreme heat that have hit regions of Spain, Greece, and Italy.

The heat alone has “damaged olive trees, stunting growth, and in some cases killing the trees,” he says. “Wildfires swept across Greece in the last few years ravaging groves and planting new trees take years before they will produce a meaningful amount of olives for harvest.”

When we asked Gyftakis specifically about Trader Joe’s empty shelves, he said it probably has a lot to do with the “low-priced blended olive oil” that the retailer most likely purchases to provide the lowest supermarket price. Gyftakis states this “low-quality oil becomes much more scarce with the supply so tight as it is used to blend other oil batches.”

As for Gyftakis and his team, he said they have a bit of an advantage since they farm everything themselves. “We have a lower overall cost since we are not purchasing our oil on the wholesale market.”

Matteo Frescobadi, brand manager of Italy-based Laudemio Frescobaldi Extra Virgin Olive Oil agreed that the shortage found nationally and internationally is due to the two-year drought in Spain.

"Spain is the major world producer of extra virgin olive oil supplying the global mass market of EVOO,” he says. “So, two years of low production in Spain means low availability of EVOO for the whole world.”

Although he uses olives within Florence and Tuscany in Italy, Frescobadi says he has not been greatly impacted by the shortage, and in fact, stated his 2023 harvest offered “an abundant production to supply the US market as well as the rest of the world.”

Will Olive Oil Prices Go Up?

If you haven’t seen olive oil prices go up yet, there is a good chance you will soon. Since there is more demand with some supply setbacks due to the climate, this can cause prices to increase both in retail and wholesale—so much in fact, Gyftakis said prices went up about 100 percent in the last 12 months.

The good news is that Gyftakis said the demand for olive oil has been higher over the years because more consumers are educating themselves about its many health benefits, including lowering cholesterol and improving cognitive function.

The Takeaway

Olive oil may be harder to find in grocery stores like many shoppers experienced at Trader Joe’s, but that doesn’t necessarily mean all will be impacted, as stated by both olive oil professionals, whom you can also purchase the product directly.

The Reddit thread that originally posted about the shortage had many commenters weighing in, saying they’ve still been able to find olive oil at their local Costco without any disruption thus far, and there is no word on whether those prices have increased.

Read the original article on All Recipes.