Mt. Olive Pickle Company
Pickles, peppers and relishes brined and packed at the Corner of Cucumber and Vine in eastern North Carolina since 1926
⚙️ American Manufacturing
Our assessment
Company details
Where Mt. Olive Pickle Company products are made
One plant, a century in place
Mt. Olive Pickle Company’s manufacturing plant has been in Mount Olive, North Carolina since the company was founded. The original acre at the Corner of Cucumber and Vine has grown to 150 acres and more than a million square feet, but the work never left town.
Most produce is grown in the US
The company states that most of the fresh cucumbers and peppers it uses are procured in the United States, with about a third of that sourced within North Carolina. Its brining and packing operations run on that domestic supply.
A few pepper lines are imported
Mt. Olive names the exceptions on its own FAQ: Roasted Red Peppers, Marinated Roasted Red Peppers and Pepperoncini are grown and packed for the company in Peru and Greece. That disclosure is why the profile carries the qualified label.
Mt. Olive Pickle Company answers the origin question itself, under the heading “Are Mt. Olive products made in the USA?” The plant has been in Mount Olive, North Carolina since 1926, and the company says most of its fresh cucumbers and peppers are procured domestically, roughly a third from North Carolina growers. It also names the exceptions without being asked: Roasted Red Peppers, Marinated Roasted Red Peppers and Pepperoncini are grown and packed for the company in Peru and Greece. Because a defined set of lines is produced abroad while the core catalogue is made in North Carolina, we label Mt. Olive American Manufacturing rather than Made in USA. Shoppers who want the domestic product should check the specific item.
The story
It began with waste. In the mid-1920s Shikrey Baddour, a Lebanese immigrant from nearby Goldsboro, saw eastern North Carolina cucumber crops rotting for lack of a buyer. By January 1926 a group of local business people had formally established the Mt. Olive Pickle Company to brine those cucumbers and sell them on to other pickling firms — $19,500 in capital and a 3,600-square-foot building on land that is still part of the manufacturing site today.
The company grew slowly and deliberately. It did not break a million dollars in sales until 1947. But it moved early on the things that keep a workforce: a profit-sharing plan in 1943, which made it one of the first 200 companies in the country to offer one, and an Employee Community Fund in 1959.
Through the late 1960s and early 1970s Mt. Olive shifted from selling brined stock to other packers into building its own brand of pickles, peppers and relishes. That is the business it is known for now — one of the best-selling pickle brands in the United States.
The town and the company are named for the same place, and the joke is theirs: Mount Olive sits on the North Carolina Coastal Plain, so there are no mounts in Mount Olive, nor olives either. The plant address is One Cucumber Blvd.
Why they matter
Shelf-stable produce is one of the easiest categories to move offshore. Brining and packing are not technically demanding, and the raw crop travels. Most of what happened to American vegetable processing over the last forty years followed that logic.
Mt. Olive Pickle Company did the opposite and stayed put — not just in the United States but in the same North Carolina town, on the same acre, buying from growers a short drive away. Roughly a third of its fresh cucumbers and peppers come from North Carolina farms, which makes the plant a piece of that region’s farm economy rather than just a factory that happens to sit there.
It is also unusually candid. A company that volunteers the three product lines it imports, on its own FAQ page, is easier to trust on the ones it does not.
Shop Mt. Olive Pickle Company products
Browse Mt. Olive Pickle Company pickles, peppers and relishes available now in the Buy American store.
Shop all Mt. Olive Pickle Company products → Visit Mt. Olive Pickle Company website →
Frequently asked questions
Where are Mt. Olive pickles made?
In Mount Olive, North Carolina. The company’s manufacturing plant has been in the town since 1926 and now covers just over a million square feet of production and warehouse space at One Cucumber Blvd.
Are Mt. Olive products made in the USA?
Most are. The company says most of its fresh cucumbers and peppers are procured in the United States, about a third from North Carolina. It also discloses that its Roasted Red Peppers, Marinated Roasted Red Peppers and Pepperoncini are grown and packed for it in Peru and Greece.
When was Mt. Olive Pickle Company founded?
January 1926, by a group of local business people acting on an idea from Shikrey Baddour, with $19,500 in capital and a 3,600-square-foot building.
Is Mt. Olive Pickle Company independent?
Yes. It has operated from the same North Carolina site since 1926 and has a long record of employee profit sharing, dating back to a plan instituted in 1943.