Huge hike in olive oil prices a hit for Vancouver restaurants

At Hydra Estiatorio in downtown Vancouver, every dish is prepared or finished with olive oil.

“Our menu being Mediterranean and focused on seafood it’s really simple, we only have a handful of ingredients. But really, really high-quality olive oil is the backbone of the restaurant,” said Mark Greenfield, the director of culinary operations at Executive Table Group, which manages Hydra Estiatorio.

Olive oil has also become a big part of the Greek restaurant’s budget. The Mediterranean cooking staple has doubled in the price in the last several years, and while the cost of most other food items is finally starting to level off, olive oil is up as much as 26 per cent in 2024.

“It’s probably the one category where we have seen the most significant hike at the grocery store,” said Sylvain Charlebois, director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University.

“For restaurant operators it’s even worse, because they do use a lot of volume, and in most cases they can’t substitute. They can’t go for avocado oil or sunflower oil, they have to stick with olive oil given the cuisine they are working with. So that’s really quite costly for them.”

The high price is being blamed on climate change in olive producing countries in the Mediterranean.

“Spain is the largest exporter of olive oil, and their product last year was down 60 per cent. Simple economics 101: when supply goes down, price goes up,” said Michael von Massow, a food economist at the University of Guelph.

Scarcity has been another hurdle for restaurants that need high-quality olive oil.

“We have had some of our vendors who have been able to provide us with extremely high-quality, single-origin olive oil in the past who’ve said at the current prices, they are just not importing it, they’re not able to seek it out at any price,” said Greenfield.

While he has managed to source product from Greece, it’s been a big hit for the bottom line.

“Right now our olive oil from Crete is the best money can buy, and unfortunately it’s a lot of money,” Greenfield said.

For consumers looking to buy olive oil to cook at home, experts warn there has been an increase in fraudulent product being sold.

“Food fraud is an issue, we know it’s something we have to watch out for, but it becomes a particular issue when prices are high and supply is low,” said von Massow, who added the price of olive oil is unlikely to drop anytime soon.

“Olives are a seasonal crop, so we are not going to have more olives until September, October of this year. If we don’t have more olives, we don’t have more olive oil, so if anything, prices will go up further over the course of the summer. Then we depend on this being a more normal year for producers, and that’s hard to predict,” said von Massow.

Greenfield says for Hydra Estiatorio, which prides itself on only serving high-quality olive oil, it’s the cost of doing business.

“For us being a premiere, high-end restaurant, we have just had to absorb the cost.”