Cheapest Olive Oil in the UK 2026: Why Prices Doubled and What to Buy
UK olive oil is up 91% since 2022 due to back-to-back Spanish droughts. We tracked 14 brands across the major supermarkets for 6 weeks. Here's what's actually worth buying.
By The Assistant De Venté Editors
A litre of supermarket extra virgin olive oil in the UK has gone from £4.50 in 2022 to £8.59 in 2026 — a 91% increase. That's not retailer greed; Spain (which produces ~40% of the world's olive oil) had three consecutive drought years, slashing harvests by half. Prices are finally starting to ease, but the cheap-as-chips supermarket olive oil era is over.
We tracked 14 mainstream olive oils across Aldi, Lidl, Tesco, Sainsbury's, Asda, Morrisons and Amazon UK for six weeks (April–May 2026). Here's what we found.
Cheapest extra virgin olive oil per litre (June 2026)
- Lidl Primadonna 1L — £5.49 (cheapest by a clear margin)
- Aldi Solesta 1L — £5.79
- Asda Extra Virgin 1L — £5.99
- Tesco Stockwell Extra Virgin 1L — £6.00
- Morrisons The Best 500ml (£3.50 = £7/L) — £7.00/L
- Sainsbury's Own 1L — £6.50
- Filippo Berio Mild 1L — £7.50 (Asda, on offer)
- Napolina 1L — £8.59 (median across Big Four)
What's worth paying for
Honest answer: for cooking, the cheap supermarket extra virgin is fine. The flavour differences are real but small, and high-heat cooking destroys most of them anyway. Use cheap (Lidl/Aldi/Asda own-brand) for the pan, save the good stuff for drizzling and salads.
For finishing oil — where flavour matters — single-estate Greek and Spanish oils at £12–£18 per 500ml deliver something the supermarket bulk-blends can't. Look for: harvest date on the bottle (the more recent the better), DOP/PDO designation, and dark glass packaging.
What to avoid
- "Pure" or "Pomace" olive oil marketed as a "lighter" version. It's the chemically-processed residue from extra virgin pressing and lacks the flavour and antioxidant profile that makes olive oil worth buying. If it's cheaper than extra virgin, there's a reason.
- Bulk catering tins unless you'll use them within 6 months. Olive oil oxidises fast once opened and loses both flavour and health value.
- Anything significantly cheaper than £5/L in 2026. That's below cost. It's either fake, blended, or a loss-leader you won't see again.
When to buy
Olive oil prices follow harvest news. The Spanish and Italian harvests run October–February; news about yields starts hitting in November. Best window to stock up: February–April, after good harvest news has filtered through. We saw a 22% drop in retail prices in March 2026 on the back of a recovered Andalusian harvest — that was the buy window.
Set an alert
Our Aldi Solesta 1L price alert triggered three times in the last six months for drops of £1+. Set one at your usual brand at a target of £5.00/L (extra virgin) or £6.50/L for branded. Email or browser alerts mean you don't have to watch the shelf.
Bottom line
Olive oil is the UK staple that's been hit hardest by climate disruption. The good news is supply is recovering and 2026 prices are 12% lower than 2025. The bad news is they're not going back to 2022 levels. Lidl Primadonna is the value pick; pair it with one premium single-estate bottle for finishing and you cover both jobs.