Greece ranks second worldwide in table olive exports, with more than 90% of domestic production shipped to over 100 countries. But after a decade of growth, exports slipped in the first half of 2026 as costs, tariffs, weaker demand and cheaper competition put pressure on the sector.
The figures were presented by Kostas Zoukas, president of the Panhellenic Association of Table Olive Processors, Packers and Exporters (PEMETE), in comments to the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA) and reported by Th. Papakostas. And here are the numbers:
- No. 2: Greece’s global position in table olive exports, according to PEMETE
- 90%+: Share of Greek table olive production exported
- 100+: Countries receiving Greek table olives
- 282,025 tonnes: Greek table olive exports in 2025
- €871.4 million: Export value in 2025
- +61%: Growth in export volume between 2015 and 2025
- +115%: Growth in export value over the same period
- -2.25%: Export volume in the first half of 2026
- -0.99%: Export value in the first half of 2026
That decline follows a record 2025, making the current figures less a collapse than an early warning after a very strong decade.
“The decline in exports during the first half of 2026, by 2.25% in volume and 0.99% in value, is a clear warning signal for the table olive sector,” Zoukas told ANA-MPA.
He points to higher energy, transport, labour and packaging costs, geopolitical conflicts, weaker purchasing power in important markets, uncertainty over US tariffs and competition from lower-cost producers.
The USA Is the Big Worry
The United States absorbs around 30% of Greek table olive exports, making it extremely difficult to replace if demand deteriorates.
US-bound exports fell:
- 6.6% in value in 2025 compared with 2024
- 1.7% in value during the first half of 2026
- 1.1% in volume during the first half of 2026
- Around 8.2% cumulative value decline from 2024 through the first half of 2026
Zoukas says repeated changes in US tariff policy have made commercial planning harder and weakened competitiveness.
There is also an odd historical footnote. Greek table olives were exempted from additional US tariffs imposed in 2019. Whether that protection can be relied upon again is now a much less comfortable question.
Then Egypt Arrived in Australia
Australia provides another warning. Greece still holds approximately 60% of the Australian table olive import market by value, according to the industry association. But Egypt’s share rose from 3.1% to 17.5% in only three years.
Egypt has expanded olive cultivation, processing and exports while benefiting from lower production and labour costs.
For Greece, the answer cannot simply be to become cheaper.
“Our competitiveness is based on quality and the particular organoleptic characteristics of Greek varieties, the tradition and know-how of processing and packaging, food safety, traceability and the reliability of Greek exporting companies,” Zoukas said.
The problem is that quality costs money.
And Here in Crete?
Crete is primarily an olive-oil island, not Greece’s table-olive powerhouse. That distinction is easy to miss when you live surrounded by olive trees, but the major table-olive varieties and production centers are concentrated elsewhere.
And there is a distinctly strange local experience attached to that.
Walk into a Cretan supermarket and table olives can feel surprisingly expensive, sometimes more expensive than the same sort of olives in Romania. The island may be swimming in olive trees, but that does not mean every jar of eating olives is cheap.
That is partly because the economics of table olives are not the same as simply having an abundance of olive trees. Processing, grading, curing, packaging, transport, and export demand all affect the final price.
Plenty of Olives, Not Necessarily Easy Money
For the current season, PEMETE describes production as normal overall. Chalkidiki has sufficient quantities for table use when existing stocks are included, while the Kalamata variety is also expected to remain around last year’s production levels.
But processors are carrying stocks purchased at higher prices while facing weaker demand and stronger international competition.
As Zoukas put it:
“There can be no strong exports without sustainable primary production, just as olive growers cannot be protected without competitive and outward-looking processing and exporting companies.”
That is probably the most useful takeaway from the whole report.
Greece has built a formidable table-olive export business. The challenge now is keeping the farmers, processors and exporters economically viable while competitors such as Egypt lower their costs and major markets become less predictable.
For a country that sends more than 90% of its table olives abroad, the next record cannot simply be measured in tonnes shipped. Someone has to make money producing them first.