Peruvian olive oil leaves at $2.55 a kilo for one destination and $5.42 for another

The numbers behind this

Peruvian olive oil leaves at $2.55 a kilo when it goes to Chile and at $5.42 when it goes to the United States. Same origin, same product name, more than double the price.

That gap is not a negotiating result. It is two different products travelling under one word.

What is actually leaving

Most of this oil moves in flexitanks. The word appears in shipment after shipment, carrying $19M of the trade.

A flexitank is bulk. No bottle, no label, no brand. It is a shipping method for raw material.

And a large share of the volume is declared as virgin lampante, an oil with an acidity level that puts it outside edible grade until it is refined. It sits well below the extra virgin in every price cut of the data.

So the trade splits in two. One side is feedstock for a refinery or a blender. The other is finished oil that will reach a consumer more or less as it left.

The destinations follow the split

Chile takes 32.8% of the volume at $2.55 a kilo. Spain takes about the same share at $3.09.

Both are olive oil producing countries with refining and bottling capacity of their own. They are not buying a finished product, they are buying input.

The United States takes 17.6% of the volume at $5.42, and Australia pays more still on a smaller share. Those are consuming markets without the same processing base.

Read that way, the price map stops being strange. It is a map of what each buyer intends to do with the oil.

The price also moved on its own

Underneath the destination split there is a genuine price cycle. The landed value per kilo fell from $5.12 to $3.39 and then recovered to $3.84.

The typical shipment did the same thing more sharply, dropping to $2.80 before returning to $4.88.

A buyer who took a reference price during 2025 is holding a number from the bottom of a cycle. It is not a benchmark for what the same oil costs now.

A market that is getting smaller

This is the most concentrated trade in the group. Thirty one exporters are active and three of them hold 61.9% of the value.

And it is contracting. Active exporters went from 16 to 12 year on year, and the volume halved over the same period.

That combination matters for anyone building a supply base here. The list of names capable of filling a container is short and it is getting shorter, so the cost of finding a supplier rises every season.

What to ask, in order

The price question is the last one, not the first.

Ask for the grade before anything else: extra virgin, virgin, or lampante. The word olive oil covers all three and the difference between them is most of the price.

Ask for the free acidity and the peroxide value, with the campaign year attached. Those two numbers decide what the oil can legally be sold as at destination.

Ask how it ships. A flexitank quote and a bottled quote are not comparable, and the flexitank hides the packing cost that the bottled price carries.

Then ask the price, and it will make sense.

Common questions

Why does Peruvian olive oil have two very different export prices?

Because two products travel under one name. Bulk lampante oil that still needs refining leaves at around $2.55 a kilo towards Chile, while finished oil towards the United States leaves at $5.42.

How does Peruvian olive oil ship?

Mostly in flexitanks. The word appears in more than 170 shipments carrying $19M, which means bulk with no bottle and no label.

Which countries buy Peruvian olive oil?

Chile takes 32.8% of the volume at $2.55 a kilo, Spain 30.2% at $3.09, the United States 17.6% at $5.42 and Australia 5.6% at $6.00.

Has the price been stable?

No. The value per kilo went from $5.12 in 2024 to $3.39 in 2025 and back to $3.84 in 2026, and the typical shipment swung from $4.92 to $2.80 and back to $4.88.

How many Peruvian olive oil exporters are there?

Thirty one are active. The largest holds 36.7% of the value, three hold 61.9% and ten reach 95.2%. Active exporters fell from 16 to 12 year on year.