Centra Foods receives questions from hundreds of manufacturers each year on the best ways to save money on olive oil.  There are many components that can affect the total price of your olive oil, including grades, packaging, freight, distance of the FOB point and experience of the supplier.  

Part One of the Series: Choosing Olive Oil Grades

Our first recommendation is to consider the grade of olive oil that will be best for you.  To be able to do that, you’ll need to look at your own manufacturing requirements.  

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Extra Virgin is the highest grade of olive oil, available in both traditional and organic varieties.  First, the olives are harvested and washed with cold water.  They are ground into paste and spun in a centrifuge to extract this initial, high-quality oil.  Typically, this process occurs within 24 hours of picking the olives from the trees.

If you’re a U.S. manufacturer, you’ve probably received your bulk olive oil in one of two ways:

1. from a U.S.-based company who ships oil to you by the pallet, or

2. from an overseas supplier who ships oil to you in a full container

There are pros and cons to each of these systems.  

Many of you may have seen Light Olive Oil or Extra Light Olive Oil at your local grocery store. With all of the ‘light’ and ‘low-fat’ versions of products available these days, it’s easy to get confused about what this term actually means in relation to olive oil.

Note: This is a continuation of a previous blog Bulk Olive Oil - Direct Delivery vs. Direct Delivery Programs. Please click here to read that article first for a thorough understanding.

The first question that you may have as you research bulk olive oil is, “What is the price of bulk olive oil?”. This is a more complex question than it may seem, because there are many factors that can affect pricing.

The Short Answer

The price of a pallet of bulk olive oil is between $2,000-$6,000. The price of a 20 ft. Container with 20 pallets of bulk olive oil is between $30,000 and $90,000.

Demand for the 275 and 330 gallon Bag-In-Box (BIB) tote is growing in the manufacturing industry. There are many reasons that buyers opt for this packaging, including a cheaper price, easier disposal and additional savings on shipping. This recyclable tote is an alternative to the industry standard, which is a hard plastic tote with an aluminum frame.

One of the most popular questions that we get from customers is, “how do we get the olive oil out of this BIB tote?”If you’re used to the standard hard plastic totes that have a built-in spigot set into the base, this is a natural question.

As a bulk olive oil supplier to manufacturers, we work closely guiding many small businesses.  Their goal is usually the same: by transitioning from smaller purchases to bulk, they hope to save money and support their bottom line.  

While there are many benefits to making this change, there are also inherent challenges that many business owners don’t really know when they start evaluating.To save business owners some time, we’ll review the ways that switching to bulk purchasing can help (and hurt!) your small business.

Saves Money

By purchasing in bulk, you can reduce your cost by eliminating packaging and receiving volume discounts.  Because of the high cost of shipping, it is necessary to buy in full pallets to make savings outweigh the additional shipping costs.

Once your order is placed with Centra Foods, you can expect a lead time of 7-14 business days for your order to be processed.  This allows our team to prepare, pack and coordinate the shipping for your order.  This time may vary based on our current production schedule.  We try to be as flexible as possible and move orders through production as quickly as we can.

Bulk olive oil is, in essence, a commodity item.  This means that the global market price fluctuates on a daily basis and is largely dependent on the supply of olive oil available in the world.  

As a first-time bulk olive oil buyer, you may find that the quotes you receive don’t include the cost of shipping. In the bulk sector, this is a common thing for suppliers to leave out of your initial price quote. If you’re not used to the ‘bulk buying world’ that can be frustrating. Here are some of the reasons why it’s initially left out:

Here are some of the pros and cons of the two most common pack sizes for olive oil used in manufacturing. Work with your operations team to learn about your warehouse/production restrictions and goals before choosing the right size.

What are 'olive oil blends'?

An ‘olive oil blend’ most commonly refers to a blend of canola oil or soybean oil mixed with olive oil in a specific ratio. These blends can actually be made up of any type of oil mixed with any particular olive oil grade.