Product knowledge
When Is Olive Oil Harvest Season?
Olive harvest across the northern Mediterranean — Syria, Türkiye, Lebanon, Greece, Italy and Spain — runs roughly from October through January, with the exact window shifting by region, variety and elevation. Olives destined for oil are typically picked while still green to just-turning, since that stage gives the freshest, most stable oil, rather than waiting for full black ripeness the way table olives sometimes are.
For a Canadian buyer, harvest timing matters less as a curiosity and more as a planning fact: fresh-crop oil pressed in that October-to-January window is what starts moving into import channels over the following months, which is why oil quality and pricing conversations tend to pick up in late winter and early spring.
The harvest window, region by region
Harvest starts earliest in the hotter, lower-elevation growing areas and moves later into cooler or higher terrain — a rough progression of October into November for early-picked, greener fruit, with some regions and varieties running into December and January for later harvests. This isn't a single fixed date across the Mediterranean; a grove's specific timing depends on variety, local climate that growing year, and whether the producer is picking early for a more peppery, robust oil or later for a milder, rounder one. Our Olive Oil (Premium Virgin) is sourced from Syria's Latakia region, part of that northern Mediterranean harvest calendar.
Why harvest timing matters to buyers
Early-picked, greener olives generally produce oil with more pronounced bitterness and pepperiness — the sensory markers professional tasters associate with high polyphenol content and freshness — while later-picked, riper fruit tends to give a milder, smoother oil with less of that characteristic bite. Neither timing is objectively better; the two styles suit different menus and different customer expectations, and harvest date alone doesn't dictate grade. What harvest timing does affect directly is how much oil a given weight of olives yields, since riper fruit generally presses more freely, which is part of why producers balance early and late picking within a single season rather than picking everything on one calendar date.
When fresh-crop oil reaches Canadian buyers
Oil pressed during the October-to-January harvest typically clears production, quality checks and shipping over the following weeks and months, meaning the freshest crop generally starts reaching Canadian importers from late winter into spring. That lag is a normal part of importing from overseas producers rather than a delay specific to any one supplier, and it's one reason olive oil prices can fluctuate through the year — early in a season, buyers are often still working through the previous year's stock alongside new-crop arrivals.
What this means for stocking and ordering
Buyers who care about freshness — a chef building a finishing-oil program, a retailer selling premium bottles — benefit from asking a supplier when a specific lot was harvested and pressed rather than assuming a bottle on the shelf reflects the most recent crop. How do you judge a good extra virgin olive oil? covers the sensory side of that assessment in more depth. For most foodservice and retail buying, though, the practical takeaway is simpler: expect new-season pricing and availability conversations to shift each year as fresh-crop oil starts arriving, and plan ordering around that rather than around a fixed calendar date.
Related questions
Is early-harvest olive oil always better quality?
Not automatically — it's a different style, generally more bitter and peppery, rather than a higher grade. Grade (extra virgin, virgin and so on) is determined by chemical and sensory testing, not by picking date alone.
Does harvest date appear on the bottle?
Not always, though some producers include a harvest or milling date voluntarily. Where it isn't printed, a buyer can ask the supplier directly for lot or pressing information.
Why does olive oil sometimes look cloudy after pressing?
Freshly pressed oil often carries natural sediment and can appear cloudy — that's a normal early-season characteristic rather than a defect, and it typically settles or is filtered before the oil reaches market.