Our Purpose

We want to bring people in Britain the fabulous tasting and nutritious Extra Virgin Olive Oil from the Subbetica Region of Spain.

Why? Because it’s one of the best olive oil making regions of the world and yet it’s largely not available to buy in the UK. Olive oil from the Subbetica has been one of Spain’s best kept secrets...until now! This region has consistently supplied 5 of the world’s top ten olive oils for over 10 years.  Premium Extra Virgin Olive Oils from this area, like Etico, have a bold taste and are high in polyphenols while also having very low acidity.  We love the amazing taste and high nutritional value and want you to be able to enjoy them in the UK, too.

We want to help preserve ancient olive trees and traditional methods of olive farming – better for the earth. There is currently a lot of pressure on smaller olive groves to turn to more intensive farming, ripping out ancient, drought-resistent trees to replace them with a new olive varietal (of inferior quality), planted in regimented rows that allow for less labour-intensive machine harvesting.

These newer trees are often treated with pesticides which reduce the quality of the soil and need to be irrigated using precious water supplies, as they don’t have deep and established root systems. The land is also put at far higher risk of fires and mudslides, by ripping out these old trees. By paying farmers more for the oil produced from their traditionally-farmed old trees, we enable them to preserve the original olive varietals (which make the best oil), making the soil more resilient and drought-resistant too. And by avoiding using chemicals, this really is better for the planet, which we care about passionately.

We want to enable farmers to resist the relentless pursuit of volume over quality. Intensive farming methods can damage the olives during harvest in contrast to hand-picking. In addition, early harvesting of barely ripe green olives produces oil which is even better tasting, higher in polyphenols and lower in acidity.However it produces roughly half the quantity of oil compared to a later harvest of riper olives- which is not always reflected in the market prices the farmers receive for their olives. By paying the farmers we work with more for their olives, we make it financially worthwhile for farmers to continue with traditional farming methods, to harvest olives early and thus to continue to produce the premium Extra Virgin Olive Oil we have grown to love.

Ethical
We’ve called ourselves Etico for a reason. The word ético means ethical in Spanish. We are striving to be fair, honest and equitable in our work with suppliers and customers.We want to feel good about our work and our oil, and we want you to, too.

Collaborative
We work closely with local farmers who want to farm more sustainably to protect the wonderful heritage of the Subbetica, working in conjunction with the olive mill and community they live in. We produce and bottle our oil at this local mill and pay the farmers a better price than they get from existing routes to market. As we grow, we pledge to give 15% of our profits to support them even further, so that we are able to make a real difference to these communities in the Subbetica.

Artisan
We will only work with small groves producing high quality Extra Virgin Olive Oil using traditional farming methods in the Subbetica in southern Spain.We’ll always know precisely where our oil comes from and won’t mix it with inferior oil from other areas.We won’t work with larger farms using intensive farming methods.

Sustainable
We don’t work with farms that use pesticides or chemical fertilisers that degrade the quality of their soil to try toprioritise volume over quality. We’re supporting our farmers to work towards more regenerative and organic farming methods. And we are committed to minimising our own carbon footprint and environmental impact.