Hedgerow rows of olive trees with small violet olives, dry golden grass and snow-capped Andes beyond

Chilean Olive Oil: The Southern-Hemisphere Harvest and What It Offers

By Yusuf Elsayed, Founder of Sidr & Stone · Last updated 3 October 2026

Chilean olive oil runs on an upside-down calendar. Chile harvests in the southern autumn, about six months after the Mediterranean, so its new oil is pressed just as northern groves are flowering — and ChileOliva, the national producers' association, reports that the country produced 20,000 tonnes of olive oil in 2025 and exported 89% of it [1]. It is a small, modern, export-minded industry built on irrigated hedgerow groves of Spanish, Italian and Greek cultivars [1]. We read the association's 2025 annual report, the EU's geographical-indications register and the peer-reviewed research on 3 October 2026; this guide sets out what is in a Chilean bottle, when it is made, and how to buy it well.

For our own oil, see our Cold-Pressed Single-Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Marrakech (500ml). It is a northern-hemisphere oil from a rain-fed Moroccan grove, and this guide is written so you can judge a Chilean bottle on its own terms.

The Short Answer

  • Chile produced 20,000 tonnes of olive oil in 2025, up 33% on 2024, and exported 89% of it — 17,737 tonnes, mostly to the United States and Brazil [1].
  • On International Olive Council figures, Chile makes about 0.6% of the world's olive oil and was its tenth-largest exporter in 2024/25 [1].
  • Arbequina covers 61% of Chile's oil-olive area and Arbosana 22%; Frantoio, Leccino, Picual, Koroneiki and Coratina make up most of the rest [1].
  • The Metropolitan, Maule and O'Higgins regions hold 72% of the 19,692 hectares planted [1].
  • Harvest falls in the southern autumn: Chilean research groves have been picked from May into July, which is why new Chilean oil reaches northern shelves from around mid-year [8, 9].
  • The EU's eAmbrosia register lists no Chilean geographical indication of any kind [3]; at home, Chile has granted one olive oil denomination of origin, for the Huasco Valley [4].

Is Chilean Olive Oil Good?

Chilean olive oil is generally a well-made, modern extra virgin oil. Most comes from young, irrigated hedgerow groves harvested by machine, and producers such as Deleyda and Las Doscientas list international competition medals [11, 13]. Because Chile harvests in the southern autumn, a dated Chilean bottle can be the freshest extra virgin oil available in a northern summer or early autumn.

That describes the industry, not any single bottle: the label tells you more than the country.

Chile's Olive Oil Industry in Numbers

Olive trees reached Chile with the Spanish in the colonial period, but ChileOliva dates the modern oil industry only to 1952, when José Canepa Vaccarezza brought in milling technology from Italy [2]. The real expansion came this century. The association says its members, from Coquimbo to Maule, represent more than 90% of national production and run high-density, mechanised, irrigated plantations [1].

Measure (ChileOliva annual report 2025) Figure
Area planted for oil 19,692 ha (ODEPA–CIREN fruit census)
Production, 2025 season 20,000 t (15,000 t in 2024)
Share exported, 2025 89% — 17,737 t, USD 99.9 million FOB
Largest export market United States: 46.9% of volume
Second export market Brazil: 21.7% of volume
Share of world production About 0.6% (IOC figures)
World export ranking, 2024/25 10th (IOC figures)
Average grove age About 10 years, mostly super-intensive

All figures are from ChileOliva's 2025 report, which combines its own data, Chilean customs statistics and International Olive Council estimates [1]. The IOC's own estimate for Chile in 2024/25 was 21,000 tonnes; the report notes that IOC figures differ slightly from national data [1].

Chile's output swings sharply with the weather: ChileOliva's series runs from 25,500 tonnes in 2021 to 15,000 tonnes in 2024, when, the association's general manager told Olive Oil Times, intense rains fell in the harvest months [1, 9]. For scale, on the same IOC table Spain produced 1,419,000 tonnes in 2024/25, nearly seventy times Chile's output [1] — see our guide to Spanish olive oil.

Three olive sprigs, small violet, oval green and pointed green, beside dishes of golden-green oil on limestone

The Cultivars: Mostly Arbequina, Then Arbosana

Chile grows almost no native varieties for oil. ChileOliva's annual report puts the planted area at 61% Arbequina and 22% Arbosana, with Frantoio/Leccino, Picual, Koroneiki, Coratina and others making up the remaining 15% or so [1]. Both leading cultivars are Spanish and both suit super-intensive hedgerows, which the association says is the system Chile adopted, under drip irrigation and mechanised work [1].

  • Arbequina — small, round fruit; typically a mild, fruity oil with green apple and almond notes.
  • Arbosana — a compact Catalan cultivar well suited to hedgerow farming; often greener and a little more bitter than Arbequina.
  • Picual — robust, bitter and peppery; see our guide to Picual olive oil.
  • Koroneiki — the small Greek olive behind intense, green oils; see Koroneiki olive oil.
  • Frantoio and Leccino — the Tuscan pair; see Frantoio olive oil.

Do the same cultivars taste the same in Chile? Not exactly. García-González, Romero and Aparicio (Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 2010) analysed seven monovarietal oils from five Chilean regions — Arbequina, Barnea, Frantoio, Koroneiki, Leccino, Manzanilla and Picual — and compared Chilean Arbequina and Picual with the same cultivars grown in Spain [5]. Fourteen aroma compounds differed significantly between the two countries' oils, and the phenolic differences lay mainly in the secoiridoid derivatives of oleuropein and ligstroside, the compounds behind bitterness and pungency [5].

Where Chilean Olive Oil Is Grown

Olive growing in Chile spreads from the Limarí Valley in the north to the Biobío River in the south, between the Pacific and the Andes [2]. The bulk of the planted area sits in the Mediterranean-climate centre: the ODEPA–CIREN census, as reported by ChileOliva, puts 72% of olive area in the Metropolitan, Maule and O'Higgins regions and 16% in Coquimbo [1].

The latitude range is wide. Torres and colleagues, reviewing southern-hemisphere olive growing in Frontiers in Plant Science (2017), note that Arbequina is grown in Chile from the Azapa Valley at 18°S to the Central Valley at 36°S [7]. Warmer northern sites change the season: the same review describes how high early-season temperatures in parts of South America and Australia bring the start of oil accumulation forward compared with the Mediterranean [7].

Place shows up in the oil. Romero and colleagues (Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 2016) compared commercial orchards in the Limarí Valley in the north and Molina in the Maule region across two harvests [6]. The Limarí oils had the highest phenolic content, and the authors concluded that soil and climate influenced the flavour compounds more than cultivar did [6].

Young olive grove in neat rows with black drip-irrigation lines across a dry valley below brown hills

When Chile Harvests: The Southern-Hemisphere Calendar

The Mediterranean picks olives roughly from October to January. Chile picks in its own autumn and early winter. In a study of Arbequina at INIA's Huasco experimental centre in the Atacama region, Antonelli and colleagues (Antioxidants, 2024) harvested in May, June and July [8]. In the Maule Valley, Las Doscientas told Olive Oil Times that its 2024 harvest began in May and ran for 70 days, longer than usual because of persistent rain [9].

Harvest timing matters for flavour. In the Huasco study, total phenols in oil from fresh fruit fell from a mean of 160 mg/kg in May to 121 mg/kg in June, and the tasting panel found the most intense fruitiness, bitterness and pungency in May, at the earliest ripening stage [8]. That is one trial at one site, but it shows the trade-off between flavour and yield.

Weather is the other variable. The same paper notes that 470 frost events were registered in Chile in 2020, concentrated in the central zone between May and August — inside the harvest window [8]. Olivos Ruta del Sol's chief executive told Olive Oil Times in 2024 that the season's challenge was balancing an early harvest against frost risk with waiting for the fruit to accumulate more oil [9].

Wooden crate of freshly picked green, violet and black olives at the end of a hedgerow row

Fresh Oil in a Northern Summer: The Honest Version

Olive oil is at its best young — our guide to fresh pressed olive oil explains why the harvest date is the one date worth reading. Because Chile presses in May to July, a Chilean oil bought in a northern summer may be only a few months old, while a Mediterranean oil on the same shelf is usually from the previous October to January. American tasting-bar retailers often label Chilean single-varietals by their southern-hemisphere season, which makes the date easy to check.

Three caveats keep this honest:

  • Distance is real. Freshness on arrival depends on how the oil was shipped, stored and bottled, not on the harvest month alone.
  • The advantage swaps sides. By the northern winter, a new Mediterranean harvest is the fresher oil, and the Chilean one is six months older.
  • In the UK and Ireland it is scarce. Chilean customs data in ChileOliva's report record just 762 kg of olive oil exported to England in 2025, against 8.3 million kg to the United States [1]. In Europe, the EU–Chile Advanced Framework Agreement now gives Chilean olive oil a duty-free quota of 11,000 tonnes a year, and 2025 exports to Spain rose 35% and to Portugal 100% [1] — but the export data do not say whether that oil is sold under a Chilean name.

Storage still decides the rest. University of Chile researchers led by Caipo (Foods, 2021) kept Arbequina extra virgin oil for up to a year under five conditions and found that oils kept at 30 and 40°C in darkness separated from those kept at 23°C or below, with more oxidised phenolic compounds that increased with storage time [10].

Two unlabelled dark green olive oil bottles with autumn olive leaves, spring blossom and a glass of oil

Designations, Seals and What a Chilean Label Guarantees

We checked the EU's eAmbrosia register on 3 October 2026: it lists no Chilean geographical indication of any kind, olive oil included [3]. There is no Chilean PDO or PGI you will see on a European shelf, unlike the Spanish, Italian and Greek oils covered in our olive oil brands A–Z.

At home, Chile's intellectual-property office, INAPI, has granted a national denomination of origin to olive oil from the Huasco Valley in the Atacama region. According to the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile, which supported the application, the oil must be extra virgin, extracted by physical means only, and made from a single, locally established variety known in Chile as Sevillana; some Huasco trees are more than 400 years old [4].

You may also meet ChileOliva's AOS seal (Aceite de Oliva Sustentable), granted to members certified under Chile's Clean Production Agreements; more than 90% of members hold it [1]. It is a sustainability mark, not a grade.

Three producers you may see

  • Las Doscientas — based in the Maule Valley; its 2026-harvest range includes Arbequina and Picual monovarietals and blends, and it states that olives are milled within 24 hours of picking [11].
  • Deleyda (Olivos Ruta del Sol) — groves in Leyda (Valparaíso) and Pumanque (O'Higgins), growing Leccino, Frantoio, Coratina, Koroneiki and Arbequina on 205 hectares according to a 2023 Olive Oil Times profile, which also reported the company holds the AOS seal [13].
  • Olave — a Santiago-based brand whose range includes a Premium Blend, an organic extra virgin oil described by its linked online store as certified organic, and flavoured oils [12].

These are examples, not recommendations.

How to Buy a Chilean Olive Oil Well

  • "Extra virgin" stated plainly — see our guide to what extra virgin actually means.
  • A harvest date or season — "May 2026" or "2026 harvest" is the whole point of buying a southern-hemisphere oil.
  • A named producer and region — Maule, O'Higgins, Limarí or Huasco tells you more than "product of Chile".
  • The cultivar — Arbequina for a mild oil, Picual or Coratina for a robust one.
  • "Chile" means the country — searches for Chilean oil also return chilli-infused oils; check that the bottle is olive oil from Chile, not flavoured with chile peppers.
  • Dark glass or a tin, in a size you will finish within a few months of opening.

For the same checks applied to any bottle, see our guide to choosing a quality olive oil.

The Honest Objections

"Isn't New World oil just industrial oil?"

Chile's model is intensive — irrigated hedgerows, machine harvesting, modern mills — but intensive is not the same as poor. Fast mechanised picking makes quick pressing easier. What you lose is variety: most Chilean oil comes from two Spanish cultivars.

"Is fresher always better?"

For the same oil, yes — but a well-stored oil can beat a fresher one handled badly. The harvest date is one check among several.

"You sell a Moroccan oil — why write about Chile?"

Because the southern-hemisphere calendar is genuinely useful to know, and in some months a dated Chilean oil will be fresher than ours. We have not farmed in Chile; everything here comes from the sources listed.

Why Sidr & Stone

Chilean oil shows what a modern, irrigated, export-led industry can do. Ours comes from the other end of the spectrum — one family-owned grove, farmed by rain. Sidr & Stone's Cold-Pressed Single-Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Marrakech (500ml) is specific about both where and how.

  • Single-estate — Sidr & Stone's olive oil comes from our own family-owned farm near Marrakech, Morocco, and we control every step from tree to bottle, with no blending across origins.
  • Rain-fed — our trees are not irrigated; they take what the season gives.
  • Organically grown — no synthetic fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides are used (not yet certified; certification is in progress).
  • Single harvest — a small, limited batch, picked when the fruit is ready; the current batch's harvest details are on the product page.
  • Cold-pressed within hours of harvest — mechanical extraction only, with no solvents, no refining and no deodorising.
  • Unfiltered extra virgin — minimally processed, so it may show natural sediment, which is normal.
  • 100% natural — a single ingredient, olive oil, with nothing blended in.
  • Dark glass with a gold label — protective packaging against light.
  • 10% of profits to charity — a brand-wide commitment.
  • Fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.

We will not tell you Sidr & Stone is better than a good Chilean oil — and as a northern-hemisphere oil it cannot be the freshest bottle on the shelf in a European summer. What we will say is that our oil is single-estate Moroccan, rain-fed, organically grown and cold-pressed within hours of harvest. For more on our origin, see our guide to Moroccan olive oil.

Sidr & Stone Cold-Pressed Single-Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Marrakech (500ml) beside green-gold oil on limestone

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Chilean olive oil good?

Generally yes — it is mostly modern oil from young irrigated groves of Arbequina and Arbosana. Quality still varies by producer, so judge each bottle by its grade, harvest date and cultivar.

When is olive oil harvested in Chile?

In the southern autumn and early winter. Chilean research groves have been harvested from May into July, and one Maule producer's 2024 harvest began in May and lasted 70 days.

What olive varieties are grown in Chile?

Mainly Arbequina (61% of the area) and Arbosana (22%), with Frantoio, Leccino, Picual, Koroneiki and Coratina making up most of the rest, according to ChileOliva.

Does Chile have a protected designation for olive oil?

Not in the EU: eAmbrosia lists no Chilean geographical indication. Within Chile, INAPI has granted a national denomination of origin for Huasco Valley olive oil.

Is Chilean olive oil fresher than Moroccan olive oil?

In a northern summer and early autumn it can be, because Chile harvests about six months after the northern hemisphere. In autumn and winter the advantage passes to a new northern harvest. Check the harvest date on either.

Where is most Chilean olive oil exported?

To the United States (46.9% of 2025 export volume) and Brazil (21.7%), followed by Spain and Portugal, according to Chilean customs data reported by ChileOliva.

Where can I buy a single-estate extra virgin olive oil?

Look for a producer that names one farm and sells only extra virgin. Our Cold-Pressed Single-Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Marrakech (500ml) is available to pre-order from the current single-harvest batch, with fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.

Is olive oil a medicine?

No. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine. It has a long traditional history — including being honoured in the Prophetic Sunnah — and a substantial body of modern research, particularly around polyphenols, cardiovascular health, and the Mediterranean diet pattern. It can be a worthwhile part of a healthy routine, but it does not cure diseases and is not a substitute for medical care. Be cautious of any olive oil marketed with specific disease-cure claims.

Final Thoughts

Chilean olive oil is a young industry with a clear identity: irrigated hedgerows of Arbequina and Arbosana, a southern-autumn harvest, and almost everything exported. Its real gift to a northern buyer is the calendar — a dated Chilean oil can be the freshest extra virgin oil on offer from mid-year into autumn.

Read a Chilean label the way you would read any other: grade, harvest date, producer, region and cultivar, then how the bottle has been kept.

Our Cold-Pressed Single-Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Marrakech (500ml) — single-estate, rain-fed and cold-pressed within hours of harvest — is available to pre-order now as a limited single-harvest batch, with fulfilment in the UK, EU, and US.

Sidr & Stone Cold-Pressed Single-Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Marrakech (500ml) with pourer, bread and tomatoes

Our extra virgin olive oil is grown organically on our own single-estate farm on the plains outside Marrakech: we control every step from tree to bottle, and no synthetic pesticides, herbicides or fertilisers are used. It is not yet certified organic — certification is in progress, and we will publish it as soon as it comes through.

Pre-Order Sidr & Stone Cold-Pressed Single-Estate Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Marrakech (500ml) — Limited Single-Harvest Batch →

References

  1. ChileOliva (Asociación Gremial de Productores de Aceite de Oliva). Informe Anual 2025: Mercado Nacional de Aceite de Oliva (figures from ChileOliva, Servicio Nacional de Aduanas, ODEPA–CIREN Catastro Frutícola and the International Olive Council). 2026. Accessed 3 October 2026. https://chileoliva.cl/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Informe-de-mercado-de-Aceite-de-oliva-ChileOliva.pdf
  2. ChileOliva. Origen Chile: El olivo en Chile y su historia. Accessed 3 October 2026. https://chileoliva.cl/origen-chile/
  3. European Commission. eAmbrosia, the EU geographical indications register (searched for Chilean entries). Accessed 3 October 2026. https://ec.europa.eu/agriculture/eambrosia/geographical-indications-register/
  4. Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Valle del Huasco obtiene la primera denominación de origen para un aceite de oliva chileno. 23 February 2022. Accessed 3 October 2026. https://www.uc.cl/noticias/valle-del-huasco-tiene-la-primera-denominacion-de-origen-para-un-aceite-de-oliva-chileno/
  5. García-González DL, Romero N, Aparicio R. Comparative study of virgin olive oil quality from single varieties cultivated in Chile and Spain. J Agric Food Chem. 2010;58(24):12899-12905. doi:10.1021/jf1031313. PMID: 21090684.
  6. Romero N, Saavedra J, Tapia F, Sepúlveda B, Aparicio R. Influence of agroclimatic parameters on phenolic and volatile compounds of Chilean virgin olive oils and characterization based on geographical origin, cultivar and ripening stage. J Sci Food Agric. 2016;96(2):583-592. doi:10.1002/jsfa.7127. PMID: 25655098.
  7. Torres M, Pierantozzi P, Searles P, Rousseaux MC, García-Inza G, Miserere A, Bodoira R, Contreras C, Maestri D. Olive Cultivation in the Southern Hemisphere: Flowering, Water Requirements and Oil Quality Responses to New Crop Environments. Front Plant Sci. 2017;8:1830. doi:10.3389/fpls.2017.01830. PMID: 29163569.
  8. Antonelli S, Pozas S, Saavedra-Torrico J, Donders M, Bustamante C, Sepúlveda B, Tapia F, García-González DL, Romero N. The Management of Irrigation and Potassium Fertilization to Mitigate the Effect of Light Frosts on the Phenolic and Volatile Compounds in Virgin Olive Oils. Antioxidants (Basel). 2024;13(5):559. doi:10.3390/antiox13050559. PMID: 38790663.
  9. Dawson D. Climate Chaos Wreaks Havoc on Chilean Harvest. Olive Oil Times. 27 September 2024. Accessed 3 October 2026. https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/production/climate-chaos-wreaks-havoc-on-chilean-harvest/134114
  10. Caipo L, Sandoval A, Sepúlveda B, Fuentes E, Valenzuela R, Metherel AH, Romero N. Effect of Storage Conditions on the Quality of Arbequina Extra Virgin Olive Oil and the Impact on the Composition of Flavor-Related Compounds (Phenols and Volatiles). Foods. 2021;10(9):2161. doi:10.3390/foods10092161. PMID: 34574270.
  11. Las Doscientas. Proceso productivo; Cosecha 2026 range. Accessed 3 October 2026. https://www.las200.cl/proceso-productivo
  12. Olave (olave.cl) and its linked store ExtraVirgen.Store, Olave collection. Accessed 3 October 2026. https://www.extravirgen.store/collections/olave
  13. Chilean Producer Bets Big on Italian Varieties. Olive Oil Times. 2023. Accessed 3 October 2026. https://www.oliveoiltimes.com/production/chilean-producer-bets-big-on-italian-varieties/125800

Disclaimer: This article describes Chilean olive oil using ChileOliva's 2025 annual report (which reproduces Chilean customs and International Olive Council figures), the EU geographical-indications register, producers' own pages, trade press and peer-reviewed sources as they stood on 3 October 2026; production, trade and producers' ranges change from year to year, and readers should check current sources. Comparisons between origins are made in good faith and in fair terms. References to named producers describe publicly listed products and are not affiliated with or endorsed by them. Olive oil is a food, not a medicine, and is not a substitute for medical treatment of any condition. For any health concern, consult a qualified medical professional.

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