You may have seen Daniel Danes Valenzuela’s olive oil—Titin is the brand—at Newton’s farmers’ markets. It’s a new line with a new company Valenzuela started just months ago.

And now, because the olive groves he uses are in Europe, new tariffs are posing a big problem for the fledgling olive oil company.

A family legacy

Valenzuela is from Spain. He came to the United States for school and graduated with an MBA from Babson College in spring 2024. That’s when he got the idea for a new business and a way he could put his new degree to work.

“Going to supermarkets, I noticed it’s difficult to find a good olive oil from a trusted source at a fair price,” he said.

Valenzuela knows about olive oil. His mother comes from a family of olive farmers, including his great-grandmother, Matilda—whose nickname was Titin.

And the business would have one very clear advantage: supply access.

“I thought, OK, if I have total control of the supply chain, why don’t I make a brand of good olive oil from my trusted source?” he recalled. “And I can put a fair price on it, basically to make it accessible to everybody.”

Fun fact: Many people associate olive oil with Italy and Greece, but Spain produces around half of the world’s olive oil supply, more than any other country.

With a supply chain, a business plan and his great-grandmother’s name, Titin was launched three months ago. And things were going smoothly. Valenzuela and his workers started going to stores and farmers’ markets in the area to promote Titin. Sales were growing.

Then came President Donald Trump with a fresh round of trade fights.

Tariff troubles

“The first container I brought in cost 10 percent in tariffs, and the second was 15 percent,” Valenzuela said.

Trump and European Union President Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen had reached the frameworks of a trade agreement, and that included an increase in what companies pay to import goods into the United States from Europe, from 10 percent to 15 percent. That means for American businesses, everything—including olive oil—has an additional cost to bring into this country.

Companies pay the tariff, but typically the cost is passed on to retailers and consumers. Valenzuela hasn’t passed that cost on to his customers yet, though, because Titin is so new. The company has to get into people’s kitchens and onto their regular shopping lists before it can ask for more money.

“We need to have a very good price and very good quality, so if the tariffs go up to 15 percent, you have 15 percent less margin,” he said.

Having family olive groves in Spain has simplified the supply chain for Valenzuela to the extent that Titin has been able to avoid passing increased tariff costs on to customers, but the 15 percent cuts into any wiggle room the company had and prices could go up in the future.

“For the new brands, it’s very tough because we need to be competitive with the big brands,” he said.

Tariffs are often aimed at helping American manufacturers, but there’s not much domestic alternative when it comes to olive oil. California, where olives can be farmed, produces between 2 million and 4 million gallons of olive oil per year, and that’s only a tiny fraction of the 375,000 tons (almost 90 million gallons) of olive oil Americans consume each year.

“The United States needs to import olive oil,” Valenzuela said.

‘Tis (almost) the season

Normal harvest season runs from November to February, but there’s an early harvest time in September, which Valenzuela will be there for. He gets oil made from olives harvested in November each year, and the early harvest oil is great for dipping and finishing dishes as opposed to cooking.

Valenzuela has been dividing his time between Spain and Boston and was heading back to Spain on Thursday, eager to see his wife, Casilda, and their 3-month-old daughter, also named Casilda.

Valenzuela has lived in South Boston for three years, and he plans to bring his wife and daughter to America. His wife wants to live in Brookline, and he loves Greater Boston in general.

“It’s my second-favorite city in the world—the first one is Madrid,” he said. “This city is beautiful. It’s very European. You have excellent universities, excellent museums.”

Tariffs aside, Titin is off to a decent start. At the 2025 U.S. I Olive Oil Competition, Titin won a bronze medal for its November harvested oil and a silver medal for its early harvest finishing oil.

You can learn more about the company here.