Olive oil has been pressed for over 6,000 years. Throughout history, it has been used for many different purposes, including lamp oil, medicines, hair and skin conditioners, soaps and candles. Olive oil was a sign of victory in the ancient Greek Olympics and was presented to the winners along with olive wreaths. Olive oil was used as a sacred oil for anointing royalty, and the olive tree was considered so sacred that to cut one down was punishable by death.

The olive tree was native to Asia Minor and spread from Iran, Syria and Palestine to the rest of the Mediterranean basin. It is among the oldest known cultivated trees in the world and was already being grown before writing was invented.
The Phoenicians spread the olive to the Mediterranean shores of Africa and Southern Europe. Olives have been found in Egyptian tombs from 2,000 B.C. Olive cultivation spread to the early Greeks and then to the Romans. As the Romans extended their Empire, they took the olive with them.

Olive growing was introduced into Spain during the time of Phoenician rule (1050 BC), but it didn't develop to any great degree until the arrival of Scipio (212 BC) and Roman rule (45 BC). After the third Punic War, olives were grown in a large stretch of the Baetica valley (present day Andalusia) and later spread towards central Spain and the Mediterranean coastal areas of the Iberian Peninsula, including Portugal. The Arabs brought their own varieties with them to the south of Spain and had such an influence over the spread of cultivation that the Spanish words for olive (aceituna), oil (aceite) and wild olive tree (acebuche) all have Arabic roots.

The first "golden age" of the Andalusian olive grove dates from the Roman period, from the third century B.C. until the second century A.D., which was when oil exports from Baetica to Rome peaked.
In Arabian Andalusia, the olive tree was cultivated with extreme care, and the Andalusian landscape was transformed into a compact forest of well groomed olive trees.
Temperate climatic conditions, characterised by warm dry summers and rainy winters, are ideal conditions for plentiful harvests. Rock, drought, silence and solitude are the ideal habitat for the majestic olive tree.

Olive oil production is still mostly centred in the Mediterranean region, where Italy and Spain are now the biggest producers of olive oil, although Greece is still very active. Spain is the world's biggest producer of olive oil, with over 300 million olive trees and 35% of world production, 75% of which is from Andalusia. Italy is the second largest producer with 24%, followed by Greece with 19%.