Bulk Olive Oil from Tunisia
Figures verified 1 September 2026.
OLYFO supplies bulk Tunisian extra virgin olive oil by the container — flexitank, IBC or drums, conventional or certified organic. We grow the olives on our own farms at Kairouan and Zaghouan, press them the same day they are picked, and ship FOB Radès. The minimum is one full 20-foot container.
This page is the technical answer to the questions a bulk buyer has to settle before a purchase order can be raised: how much oil is actually in a container, what the specification should say, which documents travel with the goods, and how to check any of it — including ours.
First, is this the bulk you mean?
Bulk means two different things depending on who is saying it.
In retail it means a large pack — a three-litre tin, a five-litre bag-in-box, a gallon jug. In the trade it means unpacked oil moved by the tonne, in a flexitank, an IBC or a drum, to be bottled or used at the far end.
OLYFO sells the second kind, and our minimum bulk order is one full 20-foot container. If you want catering quantities rather than trade volumes, our 3 and 5 litre metallic tins are on the formats page and the minimum there is one pallet per SKU. If you want a single large bottle for a kitchen, we are not the right supplier and a local retailer will serve you better.
How much oil is in a container
These are our own packing figures.
| Format | Unit size | Per 20-foot | Per 40-foot | Oil per 20-foot |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flexitank | about 22 tonnes | 1 | — | 22,000 kg · about 24,000 litres |
| IBC / SpaceKraft | 1,000 litres (916 kg) | 10 | 20 | 10,000 litres · 9,160 kg |
| Drum | 200 kg | 80 | 160 | 16,000 kg |
A flexitank fills a 20-foot container on its own and is the cheapest way to move oil per kilo. Drums and IBCs suit buyers who need to draw the oil down in stages, or who have no bulk handling at the far end. Which format suits your operation is set out in full in flexitank, IBC or drums: choosing bulk olive oil packaging.
Litres, kilos and gallons
Olive oil is bought by weight in some markets and by volume in others, and that is where costings go wrong. Our own packing figure is 1,000 litres to 916 kilograms. On that basis:
- 1 tonne is about 1,092 litres
- 1,000 litres is 916 kg
- 1 US gallon is 3.785 litres, about 3.47 kg
- 1 imperial gallon is 4.546 litres, about 4.16 kg
- a 200 kg drum holds about 218 litres, or about 58 US gallons
- a flexitank of about 22 tonnes holds about 24,000 litres, or about 6,300 US gallons
Those weights are for the oil only. They exclude packaging and the tare of the container, so check the loaded weight against the road limits at the destination as well as the rating of the container itself.
What the specification should say
Extra virgin is a legal classification with numbers behind it, not an adjective. The International Olive Council trade standard COI/T.15/NC No 3/Rev. 20, November 2024, sets the limits. A bulk contract should name the parameters and the limits, not only the words.
| Parameter | IOC limit, extra virgin | What it tells you | Our last lots |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free acidity | ≤ 0.80 g/100 g | how far the fruit degraded before pressing | 0.29 · 0.20 · 0.35% |
| Peroxide value | < 20.0 meq O₂/kg | how far oxidation has started | 10.1 · 7.4 |
| K232 | < 2.50 | oxidation, and refined oil present | 2.26 · 1.99 |
| K270 | < 0.22 | as above | 0.13 · 0.17 |
| Delta-K | < 0.01 | as above | 0.00 · −0.01 |
| ECN42 difference | ≤ 0.20 | seed oil contamination | 0.03% both lots |
| Stigmastadiene | < 0.05 mg/kg | refined oil blended in | 0.02 · 0.01 ppm |
| Fatty acid ethyl esters | ≤ 35 mg/kg | low-grade oil deodorised and sold as extra virgin | ask for the lot figure |
| Sensory panel | defects 0.0, fruity > 0.0 | whether a trained panel can taste a fault | extra virgin on all three |
Figures are from our January, February and March 2026 export shipments. Full reports, and what each number means, are on our page about the certificate of analysis.
The two numbers that catch oil which is not what it says
Stigmastadiene is created by refining, and virgin oil contains almost none. The ceiling is 0.05 mg/kg. Our January and February lots measured 0.02 and 0.01 ppm. Most buyers have never been told to ask for it.
Fatty acid ethyl esters are the second marker, at 35 mg/kg or less. They are what detects low-grade oil that has been gently deodorised to strip out its defects and then sold as extra virgin — something the other chemistry can miss. It does not appear on our published lot reports, so ask for it on the lot you are actually quoted, from us or from anyone else.
One detail worth knowing before you write the specification: the IOC standard notes that K232 applies “solely for application by commercial partners on an optional basis”. If you want it to bind, it has to be written into the contract rather than assumed.
Buying at origin, and what it changes
86.3% of everything Tunisia exported last season left in bulk — unbranded, in a tanker, to be bottled under somebody else’s label. Tunisia produced about 500,000 tonnes, second in the world, and exported 352,000 tonnes, up 56.7%. Spain took 32.4%, Italy 19.7% and the United States 19.4%. 83.4% of it was extra virgin. Those are ONAGRI figures for the 2025/26 season, updated each December.
Two things follow.
The first is that a great deal of high-grade Tunisian oil is already on European and American shelves without saying so on the label. If you buy at volume, there is a fair chance you have used it already.
The second is about traceability, and it is a structural point rather than a claim about anybody in particular: the further a lot travels before it reaches you, the more opportunities there are for it to be blended with another, and the harder it becomes to tie the certificate in your hand to the fruit that was pressed. Buying at origin keeps the lot, the harvest date and the mill attached to the oil in the container.
The varieties we ship in bulk
Chemlali accounts for about 70% of Tunisia’s olives and Chetoui about 16%, with the remaining 14% spread across roughly forty local varieties. We ship four in bulk.
- Chemlali — soft, buttery and lightly bitter. Tunisia’s signature variety and the backbone of most blends.
- Koroneiki — fruity and peppery, and very stable, which makes it a good choice where shelf life matters.
- Chetoui — intense and green, naturally high in polyphenols.
- Oueslati — aromatic, medium intensity.
Tell us how the oil will be used and we will tell you which of these suits it, including when the answer is the cheaper one.
Organic, and what the certificate covers
Our organic range is certified by Ecocert under TN-BIO-001, which covers both USDA NOP and EU Organic. Those are two separate schemes, and a supplier certified for one cannot sell as organic in the other, so establish which one your market needs before you contract. For a US certificate you do not have to take our word for it — you can look the operation up yourself in the USDA Organic Integrity Database.
Organic and extra virgin are also two separate claims. Organic describes how the olives were farmed. Extra virgin describes what the oil measured. A lot can be one without being the other, and a bulk contract should state both.
What travels with the container
Every consignment ships with a certificate of analysis for that specific lot, from an independent laboratory: SGS Tunisia, accredited to ISO/IEC 17025 under accreditation number 1-0008 and recognised by the International Olive Council, or the Office National de l’Huile laboratory at Sousse. We handle the export paperwork, including organic certification where it applies.
For the rest of your file: FDA registration 18131951200, ISO 22000 and HACCP at the facility where the oil is pressed and stored, Halal and Non-GMO. Kosher certification is in progress, and we do not describe it as anything else.
How an order works
- You tell us the volume, grade, variety, packaging and destination port.
- We send a specification and a quote against it. We do not publish prices, because olive oil is priced by harvest, variety and grade.
- We send a sample if you want one, with its certificate of analysis.
- You confirm. Payment is 50% on confirmation and 50% when the goods are ready.
- We press or draw from tank and ship FOB Radès. CFR and CIF are available on request.
Lead time is four to six weeks. The harvest runs through November and December, and we ship from December. You can configure a bulk specification and request a quote at bulk.olyfo.com.
What to ask any bulk supplier
These are the questions worth putting to whoever you are buying from. Put them to us too.
- What is the harvest date of this lot? Not the best-before date. Independent work at the UC Davis Olive Center recommends choosing oil within fifteen months of harvest, which is a useful rule whoever you buy from.
- Can I see the certificate of analysis for the lot you are quoting? Not a company specification, and not last season’s report.
- Who signed it? An ISO/IEC 17025 accredited, IOC-recognised laboratory is a different thing from an in-house test.
- What was the stigmastadiene figure, and can you give me fatty acid ethyl esters as well?
- Is K232 written into the contract? The IOC standard makes it optional between commercial partners, so it binds only if you say so.
- Where was the oil pressed, and how long after picking?
- If it is organic, under which scheme and which certifier — and can you find it in that certifier’s public database?
If an answer ever comes back vague, that is information too.
Talk to us
Tell us the volume, the grade, the packaging and the destination port, and we will come back with a specification and a quote. Email sales@olyfo.com, or call and WhatsApp +216 25 217 199. You can also send an enquiry through the contact page.
Packing and logistics: formats, palletisation and container loads — units per case, cases per pallet, and how much fits in a 20 or 40-foot container.
The numbers behind a lot: what a certificate of analysis actually shows.
The grade ladder: what grades of olive oil can you buy?
Market context: the Tunisian olive oil harvest report — production, export volumes and destinations for the current season.
New to this origin: our guide to Tunisian olive oil covers the varieties, why Tunisia has one of the world’s largest certified organic olive areas, and how to judge quality before you buy.
Under your own label instead: private label olive oil.
