Bulk olive oil by flexitank from Mersin — the operational view

A flexitank is 24,000 litres of extra virgin olive oil inside a 20-foot dry container — and the cheapest way to move bulk EVOO from Mersin to a GCC port. It is also a procurement detail that is far easier to get wrong than to get right: the bag, the bulkheads, the thermal liner, the loading bay and the documentary chain all have to align before the customs broker stamps the export declaration.

This is the operational guide Aegellia hands to every first-time bulk-EVOO buyer. It explains the equipment, the seasonality, the sea transit reality, and the loading-day chain in the order they happen.

1. The bag: what's actually inside the container

A modern food-grade flexitank is a multi-layer polyethylene bag manufactured under ISO 22000 and certified for direct food contact. The standard construction is:

1. Inner food-contact layer: 4–6 plies of low-density polyethylene (LDPE), virgin resin, certified EU 10/2011 and FDA 21 CFR 177.1520.
2. Barrier layer: EVOH or aluminium-laminate barrier in premium bags, slowing oxygen permeation across long transits.
3. Outer protection layer: woven polypropylene skin, abrasion-resistant, certified for container interior friction.
4. Top-fill / bottom-discharge valves: stainless-steel fittings with food-grade seals, lockable for customs.
5. Bulkhead system: steel-frame or corrugated-card bulkheads bolted at the container door to absorb sea-motion forces and prevent the bag bulging outward during port handling.

2. The thermal liner: a seasonal must-have

Olive oil chemistry degrades above 25°C. Free fatty acid (FFA) rises, peroxide value climbs, polyphenols oxidise. Inside a steel container sitting on a Suez Canal deck in July, the cargo temperature can hit 38–42°C without insulation. The fix:

• Reflective thermal liner: laminated bubble-foil insert installed between the flexitank bag and the container walls and roof. Drops inner cargo temperature 6–10°C.
• Core-temperature data logger: placed in the cargo centre, records temperature every 15 minutes throughout transit. Bundled with every Aegellia premium-grade load.
• Loading window discipline: bulk-EVOO containers loaded between 06:00 and 11:00 local time during summer to start the transit at the lowest practical cargo temperature.

3. The transit map from Mersin

4. The loading-day chain at Mersin

Aegellia bulk loading happens at the Mersin Free Zone warehouse, three kilometres from the container terminal. The sequence is fixed:

1. 06:00–07:00 — Container inspection: empty 20-foot dry container delivered by the trucker, internal inspection by Aegellia QA: no holes, no prior taint, clean floor. Container inspected against the cleanliness checklist (CIQ standard).
2. 07:00–07:30 — Bulkhead and thermal liner install: rear bulkhead fitted, thermal liner unrolled and taped to interior walls and roof.
3. 07:30–08:30 — Bag deployment: single-trip flexitank lifted by a four-point harness, lowered into the container, aligned, valves secured.
4. 08:30–11:00 — Fill: bulk EVOO pumped from the stainless-steel lot tank through a stainless-steel transfer line, 0.5 micron in-line filter, mass-flow meter logging fill weight every 250 kg. Total fill time for 24,000 L: 2.0–2.5 hours.
5. 11:00–11:30 — Lot sample, seal, document: 1 L lot sample drawn through the bottom valve before sealing, stored at the warehouse as a witness sample. Customs seal applied, container numbered for the B/L.
6. 11:30 onward — Transit to port: trucker delivers to Mersin Container Terminal. Pre-shipment inspection (Bureau Veritas or SGS) at the terminal gate before vessel handover.

5. The documentary envelope, bulk variant

6. The economics

Indicative 2026 Q2 numbers for a single 24,000 L Aegean Reserve bulk EVOO container ex-works Mersin, expressed per kilogram:

For the document-level GCC compliance details (SASO, SABER, G-Mark, Halal), see our GCC compliance playbook. For the Incoterms-by-Incoterms cost breakdown, see olive oil Incoterms 2020. To start a quote, head to the RFQ form and select "bulk".