For over 2,000 years, since Roman times, this land has produced some of the finest olive oil in the world. The Romans exported this olive oil in vast quantities throughout their empire because of its exceptional quality. The unique climate, limestone-rich soil and hilly terrain created ideal conditions for cultivating the region’s native olive varieties to produce a pure, stable and high-quality olive oil with very high polyphenols. You can read more about Spanish olive varieties here.

And yet, the area and its amazing oil have remained a secret until now - you won’t find an olive oil from this region on sale in supermarkets in the UK.

Today in the Subbética the tradition continues - but it's under threat. Modern pressures are pushing traditional farmers toward mass production: cutting down ancient, non-irrigated olive trees and replacing them with higher-yield, lower-quality varieties. Many have turned to pesticides and mechanical harvesting - not because they want to, but because they feel they have no choice. We aim to help change that.

Paco and his family have been farming olives for generations. They use traditional methods to nurture their trees; and they carefully use nets, poles and “shakers” to hand pick the olives each harvest.

Like most olive farmers here, Paco’s finca is small and he can’t afford to find customers independently who will pay a fair price for his traditional farming. Read about Our Purpose here.

So, his olives have in the past been sold to the local olive mill – where they were mixed with other farmers’ olives (many of whom don’t share his sustainable methods) – to then produce an olive oil which is sold on to “big agriculture” buyers; or driven by the tanker-load to Italy, where they may be blended with other, inferior olive oils.

Great olive oil makes food taste better, and is often linked to better health - it forms a key part of the Mediterranean Diet. But sadly not all olive oil is good.

Much of the olive oil on supermarket shelves in Britain is highly processed and a mixture of oils from different regions with little or no traceability. It doesn’t offer the health benefits of a good olive oil. And much of the olive oil bought in Britain has been produced by industrialised, intensive farming using heavy chemicals which are bad for the planet. In fact, books have even been published about the murky world of olive oil!

It is widely known that extra virgin olive oil is higher quality than other types. Much less well known is that early harvest extra virgin olive oil is significantly better than “normal” extra virgin olive oil. It typically takes twice as many early harvest olives per litre of olive oil as for normal olive oil, making it much more expensive to produce. Early harvest extra virgin olive oil is often called aceite verde, as the olives used for it are green. Read more about types of olive oil here.

Etico wants to bring you Paco’s amazing extra virgin olive oil directly. Paco harvests his olives early, to create the highest quality olive oil for us. By cutting out distributors, wholesalers and retailers, we can pay Paco more for his early harvest extra virgin olive oil than he would get from selling it to his local cooperative - but still make it available to you at a reasonable price.

Paco’s oil is milled from his ancient olive trees (many over 300 years old!) in one finca. His trees are the typical local mix of olive types: picual, hojiblanca and picudo. This combination is widely regarded in Spain as producing the best quality olive oil. We think that the oil they produce is simply stunning!

You can read more about Etico’s olive oil here.

We aim to grow and work with more farmers like Paco - but only ever farmers from the Subbetica. We’d love to make a real difference to this fabulous area, helping it continue to deliver amazing olive oil for years to come. In addition to paying above market prices for their oil, we’ll give a share of our profits to supporting our farmers.

By buying Etico olive oil, you can help directly too - we’d love you to join us.

Why Etico? Etico is the Spanish word for ethical. We call ourselves ETICO because we are committed to working ethically with our farmers, their oil, and you. We select farmers who farm sustainably, pay them fairly, minimise our carbon footprint as we transport the oil from the mill to your door, and keep our prices in Britain as low as possible, so more people like you can enjoy the oil and help this region.

You can read more about our purpose and values here.

And who are we? We’re two British couples who love food and Spain. We’re also passionate about doing what we can to help the planet.

This story is far more about the farmers and their amazing olive oil than about us.

But if you’re interested, you can read more about us here.