Portuguese olive oil: from production to value
In 2025, Portugal produced almost two and a half times more olive oil than it consumed. Its self-sufficiency rate reached 247.9% — a figure that, at first glance, looks like a success story. (Source: INE / 24Notícias, September 17, 2026)
Not always.
The paradox the numbers hide
An article published on September 17 by 24Notícias heard from four producers — two in olive oil, two in wine — and the diagnosis is unanimous: producing above domestic needs does not mean the farmer can make a living from what they produce.
António Martins, an olive oil producer from Trás-os-Montes, is direct: Portugal can produce and export a lot of olive oil, but that does not guarantee the producer a margin. When production costs rise — labour, fuel, plant protection products — and the selling price falls, the calculation is simple: the margin disappears. (Source: 24Notícias / Gonçalo Lopes)
The problem, he adds, is structural: a traditional olive grove on a hillside in Trás-os-Montes cannot compete on costs with hundreds of mechanised hectares. And if the State does not recognise that difference, those olive groves will simply be abandoned. (Source: 24Notícias)
"We don't need to produce for the sake of producing. We need to sell better."
Maria Fernandes, an olive oil producer from the Alentejo, goes to the heart of the issue with a line that could sit at the centre of Azeite a Norte's mission: "We don't need to produce for the sake of producing. We need to sell better." (Source: 24Notícias)
She goes further: Portugal already knows how to produce high-quality olive oil. What is missing is for that quality to be properly paid for. And that requires external promotion, differentiation — and a clear indication of origin that the consumer can understand and trust. (Source: 24Notícias)
João Carvalho, a wine grower from the Douro, closes the argument with the most important line in the article — and the one closest to what we defend: "The goal cannot simply be to produce more. It has to be to produce what we can valorise." (Source: 24Notícias)
Traceability: the answer the sector is asking for — and that already exists
Ana Sousa, a wine grower from the Dão region, frames the question that ties this whole conversation together: "What must exist is absolute traceability. The consumer must know where what they are buying comes from, and we need to compete on equal terms." (Source: 24Notícias)
At Azeite a Norte, this is not an aspiration. It is a reality we are already building.
The traceability that producers are calling for now has a concrete answer in the Digital Product Passport (DPP) — the system that allows the consumer, from a simple QR code, to know exactly where their olive oil comes from: the grove, the producer, the harvest, the analysis results. A tool that turns origin into a competitive advantage — and that Azeite a Norte is implementing with its partner producers.
👉 Find out more about DPP traceability at Azeite a Norte: azeiteanorte.pt/rastreabilidade-dpp
Olive oil tourism as a value tool
If the question is not about producing more, but about valorising better — then olive oil tourism is one of the most direct answers available.
The visitor who walks into a mill in Mirandela, tastes freshly pressed olive oil, understands the difference between Cobrançosa and Madural, and meets the producer by name — that visitor is not buying olive oil. They are buying a story, an origin, a relationship. And they pay a price for it that the supermarket shelf will never reach.
This is exactly what the producers heard by 24Notícias are asking the market to do: recognise the value of what is in the bottle. Olive oil tourism is the most direct path to that recognition — without intermediaries, without price pressure, without comparison to intensive grove oil at €3.35 per litre.
👉 Meet our partner producers and explore our olive oil tourism routes in Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro — and discover how to buy olive oil from the people who make it, at the price it deserves.
Source: 24Notícias / Gonçalo Lopes — "Portugal produz mais azeite e vinho do que consome. Então por que razão os produtores estão em dificuldades?", September 17, 2026: https://24noticias.sapo.pt/economia/artigos/portugal-produz-mais-azeite-e-vinho-do-que-consome-entao-por-que-razao-os-produtores-estao-em-dificuldades
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