Selling olive oil in today's global market requires navigating volatile prices, unpredictable harvests, complex regulations and changing buyer expectations.
After 14 years in agrifood exports, Anastasia Terzidou, Senior Sales Manager in Wikifarmer's commercial team, says long-term success in olive oil sales depends on trust, adaptability and deep market knowledge.
With a Bachelor's in Food Science and Technology and an MBA focused on the agrifood sector, Terzidou entered food exports early in her career and says she knew from day one it was for her. Today, she oversees B2B sales of agricultural products at Wikifarmer, with a particular focus on seed oils and olive oil.
“My day-to-day spans prospecting and outreach, researching and identifying potential buyers, as well as direct selling, pitching new accounts, negotiating terms and pricing, handling objections, and closing deals — all while maintaining a CRM-driven approach to pipeline management,” says Terzidou.
What makes olive oil sales different
Olive oil sales differ markedly from those of other agrifood products because they combine a unique set of commercial challenges.
“Agrifood sales, and olive oil in particular, stand apart due to seasonality and harvest-driven supply, extreme price volatility, variable quality that requires technical fluency, and a fragmented producer base — all layered on top of trust issues stemming from food fraud concerns and complex import/export regulations,” Terzidou explains.
Selling in that environment, she argues, calls for a hybrid mindset: comfort with volatility, enough technical knowledge to speak credibly about quality, patience for long relationship-building cycles, and “authentic storytelling around provenance to justify premium positioning.”
The best salespeople in this field blend the instincts of a commodity trader, a quality expert, and a relationship builder, rather than relying on a purely transactional sales approach.
Harvests dictate the sales calendar
In agrifood, seasonality is of the utmost importance. Terzidou says factors like weather, commodity prices and supply volatility “don’t just influence agrifood sales, they fundamentally restructure how selling and planning happen.”
The season effectively becomes the sales calendar. “A significant amount of deal activity clusters around harvest windows,” she notes, “requiring relationships to be built well in advance so you can move fast once a new crop supply is confirmed.” Weather then adds a layer of forecasting risk no salesperson can control — “a poor harvest can blow up a well-built pipeline.”
Prices can shift rapidly, forcing sales strategies to change just as quickly. When commodity prices swing sharply, Terzidou says the pitch evolves with it: from convincing a client you are the best option to convincing them to move before the window closes.
Terzidou says the wise way to do it is diversifying across origins and products “so one bad harvest doesn’t wreck a whole quarter.”
Olive oil sales are highly scenario-based, explains Terzidou, “weighted heavily toward speed and relationship depth during the narrow windows when supply is actually available.”
Traceability is expected, sustainability differentiates
Buyer expectations are always changing, and in the last few years, the focus has shifted heavily to sustainability, traceability and food security.
Traditional B2B olive oil buyers, especially when sourcing urgently, “tend to prioritize traceability and food safety compliance — certifications, CoAs, origin documentation — over sustainability credentials,” Terzidou says. When the pressure is on to secure a compliant supply, ESG (environmental, social, and governance) practices become secondary.
Sustainability carries more weight, Terzidou explains, “with buyers in premium retail markets, where end-consumer demand and regulation push it higher on the checklist,” while in more traditional or price-sensitive markets, it is more of a secondary consideration.
Traceability and food security have become baseline expectations across nearly all markets nowadays, whereas sustainability “remains more market- and buyer-dependent,” says Terzidou.
When deals go sideways
Agrifood sales come with their own set of challenges that market participants like Terzidou have to face.
One of the biggest challenges, she says, is when “confirmed orders are put at risk by factors entirely outside your control”, like when a transport company fails to load on schedule, or an overseas supplier doesn’t honour agreed loading terms, leaving a waiting client empty-handed.
What matters in those difficult moments, Terzidou says, is the response.
“I’ve always believed in approaching clients with respect, openness, and full transparency the moment an issue arises — rather than delaying bad news or downplaying the problem,” said Terzidou.
Being upfront about what happened, why it happened, and what we can do about it “tends to preserve trust even when the outcome itself is disappointing,” explains Terzidou.
These incidents, she says, are a reminder of “just how fragile the balance is in international trade” — how many moving parts, third parties and undetermined factors decide whether an order is executed, no matter how well the deal was structured.
“Resilience and honest communication are just as critical to long-term client relationships as the commercial terms of the deal itself,” affirms Terzidou.
The future of agrifood sales
Over the next few years, Terzidou sees the commercial side of agrifood evolving steadily, with AI and digital tools increasingly supporting sourcing, forecasting, and buyer-supplier matching, “though personal relationships and trust will remain at the core of how deals actually get done.”
She expects a growing emphasis on traceability, diversified sourcing, sustainability, clean labels and transparency to shape buyer needs and expectations.
Her advice for anyone entering the field: Genuinely understand the product and the market forces behind it — seasonality, quality, and pricing dynamics. Build trust-based relationships rather than chasing quick wins, and stay adaptable — it matters as much as sales skills in an industry shaped by forces outside your control — especially given that business development in agrifood often takes years before relationships translate into commercial results.
Markets may fluctuate, harvests may disappoint, and prices may surge, but long-term success will continue to depend on trust, transparency and patience.
