After little more than a year of using olive oil from Greece for its Kirkland Siganture extra virgin olive oil, warehouse giant Costco has apparently switched back to Italy as the source for its green-gold elixir.
Costco switched to using extra-virgin olive oil (EVOO) from Greece for its private-label 2-liter bottles last year after the disastrous 2014-2015 harvest — plagued by bad weather, pests and wasting diseases — that saw Italy’s production plummet and prices soar.
But after a better 2015-2016 worldwide harvest, and with Italian EVOO production bouncing back and prices going down, Costco reportedy made the switch back to Italian, according to Olive Oil Times.
“It was what members wanted. They’re used to what they’re used to and there’s a perception that Italian EVOO is top-of-the-line. The Greek oil did OK — I myself preferred it in a blind tasting — but it was not quite as strong a seller,” Olive Oil Times quotes Chad Sokol, commodity and dry grocery buyer for Costco’s Northern California and Nevada stores, as saying. “And pulling our buy out of Italy was significant. Their pricing came down as a reaction, and that was our hope as well.”
