Traditional dryland olive groves: what the numbers hide — and why northern olive oil has never been fairly priced
- Azeite a Norte Blog
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
There is a truth that olive oil sector reports consistently bury behind a national average — and like all averages, it explains nothing. An opinion piece by consultant José Martino, published on July 26 in Agroportal, puts it plainly on the table with concrete data: the cost of producing olive oil in Portugal is not a single number. It is several very different numbers, depending entirely on the type of grove. (Source: Agroportal / José Martino, July 26, 2026)
And the difference is stark.
What the numbers reveal: from €2.5 to over €12 per litre
Drawing on data from the AEMO — Asociación Española de Municipios del Olivar —, Martino presents the following relationship between cultivation system, productivity and real production cost:
Cultivation system | Productivity (kg/ha) | Production cost (€/l) |
Traditional non-mechanisable | 1,750 | €10.93 |
Traditional mechanised dryland | 3,500 | €7.61 |
Intensive dryland | 5,000 | €5.81 |
Traditional mechanised irrigated | 6,000 | €4.88 |
Intensive irrigated | 10,000 | €3.76 |
Superintensive (irrigated, hedgerow) | 10,000 | €3.35 |
(Source: Agroportal / José Martino, citing AEMO study)
The traditional non-mechanisable grove — the kind that dominates the schist hillsides of Trás-os-Montes, the Douro Valley and the Beiras — costs more than three times as much to run as the superintensive hedgerow olive groves of the Alentejo. And on the market, both types sit on shelves at prices that rarely reflect that difference.
The Alentejo concentrates. The North resists.
Agricultural census data from 2019 confirm what those working on the ground already knew: the Alentejo today accounts for 52.4% of the national olive grove area and 82.9% of the economic value generated by specialised olive growing operations. Trás-os-Montes holds 21.7% of the area — and a much smaller share of the value. Per operation, the Alentejo generates triple the national average; Trás-os-Montes falls three to five times below it. (Source: INE / Agricultural Census 2019, cited by Martino)
In the 2024 campaign, Portugal broke its production record: 180,000 tonnes. More than 80% of that volume came from the Alentejo's intensive hedgerow plantations — 66,000 hectares, over 50,000 of which were planted in the last decade alone. (Source: INE / Agricultural Statistics 2024, cited by Martino)
This is the model that is growing. The one quietly retreating — hectare by hectare, without headlines — belongs to the North.
The gap the consumer never sees
Martino identifies a paradox that any producer in Trás-os-Montes will instantly recognise: an olive oil from Trás-os-Montes, the Douro or the Beiras should, in theory, cost the consumer two to six times more than one from an Alentejo superintensive grove. It doesn't.
The reason is twofold: either the supply chain fails to communicate this difference to consumers, or it communicates it ineffectively. The result is that high-quality differentiated extra virgin olive oil is exported at premium prices — frequently re-exported under Spanish or Italian labels, countries the international consumer associates with excellence — while the domestic market continues to treat olive oil as a commodity with a single reference price. (Source: Agroportal / José Martino)
What this means for olive oil tourism
At Azeite a Norte, this article comes as no surprise. It is the technical and statistical confirmation of something that has driven us from the start: the traditional dryland olive grove of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro will not survive on beauty or heritage alone. It will survive if the consumer — and the visitor — understands what they are buying, and is willing to pay what that product genuinely costs to produce.
This is precisely where olive oil tourism is more than tourism. It is a value communication tool that the supply chain alone cannot deliver: bringing the visitor to the grove, showing them the centuries-old dryland tree, letting them taste the oil that comes from that olive, on that hillside, at that cost of production — and saying, honestly: this olive oil cost more to make than the one on the supermarket shelf. That is why it is worth more.
The training programme that Azeite a Norte is developing with the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança — 50 hours qualifying tourism operators, producers and local guides — starts from exactly this conviction: to defend the traditional olive grove, those who show it must first know how to explain why it is different.
👉 Read José Martino's original article on Agroportal (PT): https://www.agroportal.pt/azeites-de-portugal-tratar-diferente-o-que-e-diferente/
👉 Explore our olive oil tourism routes in Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro — and discover the producers behind the olive oil the world exports at a premium.
Source: Agroportal / José Martino — "Azeites de Portugal: tratar diferente o que é diferente", July 26, 2026.
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