Peru’s Olive Oil Sector Eyes Record Rebound in Despite Pest and Trade Challenges

Summary

Olive oil pro­duc­ers in Peru are expect­ing a rebound har­vest after a pro­duc­tion decline in 2024, with pro­jec­tions indi­cat­ing the poten­tial for record-high pro­duc­tion lev­els in 2025 and sig­nif­i­cant export rev­enues. However, chal­lenges exist in the coun­try’s table olive and olive oil value chains due to low prices and struc­tural weak­nesses, exac­er­bated by tar­iffs on exports to the U.S. that may impact future demand and pric­ing strate­gies.

Despite con­tin­ued issues with the Mediterranean fruit fly in the south of the coun­try, olive oil pro­duc­ers in Peru expect a rebound har­vest. 

Following a pro­duc­tion decline to 700 met­ric tons in 2024 due to exces­sive heat attrib­uted to El Niño, olive oil pro­duc­tion is expected to return to its aver­age of 7,000 to 10,000 tons this year.

“If the arrival of the La Niña weather phe­nom­e­non is con­firmed, national pro­duc­tion is expected to recover,” offi­cials wrote in a 2024/25 har­vest report seen by Olive Oil Times. ​“This could gen­er­ate export rev­enues exceed­ing $50 (€43) mil­lion, espe­cially if pro­duc­ers cap­i­tal­ize on the grow­ing demand in the U.S., Europe, Australia and China.”

Lourdes González, an award-win­ning pro­ducer at Vallesur and the leader of the country’s only International Olive Council-approved tast­ing panel, told Olive Oil Times that she is antic­i­pat­ing a con­ceiv­ably record-high har­vest for the Tacna-based com­pany.

“While we have not yet com­pleted the olive har­vest — for both olive oil and table olives — pro­jec­tions indi­cate that we could match or even exceed the vol­umes achieved in 2018, one of the high­est pro­duc­tion years in the sec­tor,” she said.

González con­firmed that olive grow­ers expe­ri­enced a favor­able cli­mate through­out the sec­ond half of 2024 and the begin­ning of 2025, which allowed for ​“ade­quate flow­er­ing and healthy crop devel­op­ment.”

“However, given that some fields are still being har­vested, there is a risk that they will not be able to enter the flow­er­ing period on time,” she said. ​“This could mean that the 2026 cam­paign will not reach the excep­tional pro­duc­tion lev­els we are expe­ri­enc­ing this year.”

González added that man­ag­ing the logis­ti­cal chal­lenges around this year’s bumper crop with­out com­pro­mis­ing qual­ity was Vallesur’s most sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenge. 

“Unlike 2024, when pro­duc­tion was very lim­ited, in 2025, we face the oppo­site chal­lenge: over­sup­ply,” she said. ​“This has required uti­liz­ing prac­ti­cally 100 per­cent of our installed capac­ity, with longer work days and, con­se­quently, higher logis­ti­cal demands and greater main­te­nance require­ments on pro­cess­ing lines.”

Elsewhere in Tacna, Gianfranco Vargas, an olive oil pro­ducer and pres­i­dent of the cul­tural asso­ci­a­tion Sudoliva, indi­cated that this year’s boun­ti­ful olive har­vest has exposed a struc­tural weak­ness in the country’s table olive and olive oil value chains.

“[Olive] prices are very low. It’s been a com­plaint from farm­ers,” he said, point­ing out that farm­ers are sell­ing olives to inter­me­di­aries who later resell to mills with a 230 per­cent markup.

Vargas added that table olive farm­ers are fac­ing a sim­i­lar issue with pack­ers and exporters. He esti­mated that 90 per­cent of olives grown in Peru are des­tined for table olive pro­duc­tion.

“It is impor­tant to note that while there are no more than 50 olive oil pro­duc­ers, there are more than 3,000 farm­ers who not only grow olive trees but also process their olives into nat­ural green and black olives,” he said.

Similarly to the case for olive farm­ing for oil, Vargas said table olive farm­ers often sell their olives to inter­me­di­aries for low prices, who later resell to pack­ers at much higher prices.

According to the 2024/25 har­vest report, Peru exported about 6,500 tons of table olives in the first five months of 2025 and is expected to ship up to 40,000 tons by the end of the year. In 2024, offi­cials esti­mated that Peru exported 30,500 tons of table olives, val­ued at $84 mil­lion (€72 mil­lion).

While most of Peru’s table olives crossed the bor­der to Chile last year, the United States and Brazil are the des­ti­na­tions for three-quar­ters of Peru’s exports in 2025.

Indeed, Vargas indi­cated that the ten-per­cent tar­iff cur­rently applied to Peruvian olive oil and table olive exports to the U.S. may prove to be a com­pet­i­tive advan­tage for the country’s prod­ucts com­pared to the 25 per­cent tar­iff fac­ing Tunisian and the 15 per­cent tar­iff fac­ing European Union peers.

According to the 2024/25 har­vest report, offi­cials antic­i­pate Peru will export 8,500 tons of olive oil, val­ued at $55 mil­lion (€47 mil­lion), a sig­nif­i­cant increase com­pared to 2024.

The major­ity of these exports are fore­casted for the sec­ond half of the year, fol­low­ing a slow start to 2025. In the first five months of the year, less than 69 tons, val­ued at $80,000 (€68,500), were exported, before the first olives were crushed. 

González, whose com­pany recently started export­ing to the U.S., said she has not yet noticed an impact from the tar­iffs, but believes they could have a more sig­nif­i­cant effect on the 2026 har­vest.

“So far, export con­di­tions have remained sta­ble in terms of vol­ume and prices,” González said. ​“However, the new tar­iffs are likely to affect demand by pass­ing it on to the final price for the con­sumer.” 

“The real impact will become appar­ent once the prod­uct reaches the U.S. mar­ket,” she con­cluded. ​“Depending on con­sumer reac­tion, we may need to adjust our export strat­egy for the 2026 sea­son.”