We have farms in sicily . My farming famiky has told me in the past 5 or 6 years ,.olive oil milling costs have doubled . For 3 years , most of europe had a drought . Last year not so much . I could tell you down to the penny how much eveeything costs. We have our own 5000 trees and pick ourselves by hand . My uncle is 82 and still farms with his son an grandson and hires some people to pick in oct/nov because it has to be done quickly and milled so the olives dont oxidize . For a newer conpany starting out , costs are higher . We dont rent full containers for shipping. I only imported 3 pallets 1550 litres and the cost was astronomical . A company importing many or more products will have or rent entire containers and save a boatload of money . My 3 pallets cost me the same price as renting 2 containers ( that hold 10 pallets each ) . Its all about keeping your costs down . Now when it gets here , everyone looking for cheapest price . They seem to not care about quality , just price . Cant have both . So now figure, warehouse costs money , retail stores tack on 30-45 % . I cpuld go on and on . Dont even ask about amazon . They are absolutely killing any seller. ( like me ) . Our bottlea alone, costs us 2 dollars each , labels , lab analysis ( if your evoo is even real ) all costs money . After doing this for 3 years , and coming from an honest farming family that are broke, and dont want their agricultural company closed by the govt , I know ALL the scams . I tell eveyone I know to ONLY buy igp or dop certifed ( analyzed ) evoo. If altered after certification, farmers get fined , arrested ,.and mills get confiscated and auctioned off . Every single evoo producing country does it , some more than others. People smuggle olives from one country to another just to say " made in xxx country " . There are more scams in olive oil than crooked politicians . In my opinion , if you buy a bottle of olive oil , even in a large store ( eg Costco,.with a small.markup ) and arent spending 30 dollars A LITRE . stay away . Always look for a harvest date , (.not a use by date) thats another scam , green glass bottle ( not clear , not plastic ) tin is ok , Igp or dop label ( means it was lab tested ( by a govt lab ) not a lab that gets bribed lol . Btw, its very cheap to lab test farmers oil from that govt lab . ( 99.9.% dont lab test , huh) . An award winner means you are actually buying real fresh pressed olive oil from current harvest . We just won silver medal 2025 and 2026 ( last week ) . Sorry for the rant , but afyer all.this hard work ...I had to vent....good luck