Leading Tunisian Bulk Olive Oil Exporter Pivots to Adding Value

Despite overt ref­er­ences to the past, the peo­ple behind Bulla Regia are look­ing to the future of Tunisian olive oil exports. 

Bulla Regia is the Roman name of a his­toric city in north­west Tunisia, which flour­ished thanks to its agri­cul­tural pro­duc­tion and exports, includ­ing olives. 

“The inspi­ra­tion behind start­ing Bulla Regia stemmed from our posi­tion as a leader in the export of Tunisian olive oil in bulk,” Hédi Belkhodja, Bulla Regia’s gen­eral man­ager, told Olive Oil Times. 

“Recognizing the poten­tial to cre­ate added value and empha­size the ori­gin of our prod­uct, we decided to launch Bulla Regia as a brand that show­cases the excep­tional qual­ity and her­itage of Tunisian olive oil,” he added.

The com­pany takes advan­tage of the region’s long his­tory of olive grow­ing. Belkhodja said gen­er­a­tions of skilled olive grow­ers have care­fully tended to the ancient olive trees, pass­ing down time-honed tech­niques.

“From the land to the mill and now to the bot­tling, each gen­er­a­tion has accu­mu­lated know-how and has passed it on to the next gen­er­a­tion to bet­ter advance in this field,” he said. ​“Our last step was the cre­ation of our fac­tory and pack­ag­ing brand Bulla Regia in 2016.”

The com­pany said it exports about 20,000 tons of olive oil annu­ally, mostly to European cus­tomers. 

Still, Belkhodja said one of the company’s main chal­lenges was dis­tin­guish­ing its prod­uct on the crowded inter­na­tional mar­ket­place and revers­ing the long-held par­a­digm of Tunisia as a bulk olive oil exporter.

“One of the most sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges was estab­lish­ing and pro­mot­ing Tunisian ori­gin as a dis­tin­guish­ing fac­tor in the global olive oil mar­ket,” he said. ​“Another chal­lenge was meet­ing the require­ments of mass dis­tri­b­u­tion, which required care­ful plan­ning and invest­ment in infra­struc­ture and oper­a­tional capa­bil­i­ties.”

From its start in 2016, Belkhodja said Bulla Regia had come a long way and made sig­nif­i­cant strides in var­i­ous aspects of its busi­ness. ​“We have invested in enhanc­ing the effi­ciency of our pro­duc­tion processes and improv­ing the qual­ity of our infra­struc­ture,” he said.

Along with tra­di­tional European mar­kets, Belkhodja said the com­pany is quickly expand­ing into emerg­ing olive oil mar­kets in Asia.

“We have suc­cess­fully diver­si­fied our mar­ket pres­ence and cul­ti­vated cus­tomer loy­alty, allow­ing us to reach a broader cus­tomer base in the United States, European Union, Qatar, Kenya, Nicaragua, Japan and the United Kingdom,” he said. 

“We are pleased with our progress but remain ambi­tious to increase export vol­umes, expand oper­a­tions, improve dis­tri­b­u­tion net­works and explore new mar­ket oppor­tu­ni­ties,” Belkhodja added. ​“The Middle East region holds immense poten­tial for the con­sump­tion of olive oil, and we believe there are great oppor­tu­ni­ties for growth and mar­ket pen­e­tra­tion.”

Like many other olive pro­duc­ing-coun­tries across the Mediterranean, Tunisia has faced a severe drought threat­en­ing its mostly rain­fed groves.

“The scarcity of water due to the drought has affected the olive trees’ growth and pro­duc­tiv­ity, result­ing in a decrease in olive oil pro­duc­tion,” he said. ​“Moreover, the impact of the drought on the qual­ity of olives and olive oil can­not be ignored. The stress caused by water scarcity can affect the over­all fla­vor and char­ac­ter­is­tics of the extra vir­gin olive oil.”

Bulla Regia was no excep­tion to the adverse effects of the drought. ​“The drought has affected our busi­ness, both in terms of demand, price and, more impor­tantly, qual­ity of Tunisian olive oil on the inter­na­tional mar­ket,” he said.

The com­pany has taken mea­sures to adapt to the drought and mit­i­gate some of its adverse impacts on its olive oil pro­duc­tion. 

“Bulla Regia adheres to sus­tain­able and organic farm­ing prac­tices, which pro­mote soil health and nat­ural water reten­tion capa­bil­i­ties,” Belkhodja said. ​“These prac­tices include com­post­ing, crop rota­tion and min­i­mal use of chem­i­cal inputs. By fos­ter­ing a healthy ecosys­tem within our olive groves, we enhance the resilience of our trees in the face of water scarcity.”

Despite the chal­lenges posed by drought, Bulla Regia said it remains com­mit­ted to main­tain­ing the high­est qual­ity stan­dards. The com­pany earned a Silver Award at the 2023 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.

“It was a proud recog­ni­tion of our hard work, ded­i­ca­tion, and com­mit­ment to pro­duc­ing high-qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil,” Belkhodja said. ​“These awards hold sig­nif­i­cant mean­ing for our busi­ness. They serve as a pow­er­ful endorse­ment of the qual­ity and excel­lence of our prod­uct. It helps dif­fer­en­ti­ate Bulla Regia from com­peti­tors, enhanc­ing our brand rep­u­ta­tion and cred­i­bil­ity.”

“Winning awards pro­vides a com­pelling mar­ket­ing story that can be lever­aged in adver­tis­ing cam­paigns, pro­mo­tional mate­ri­als and online plat­forms, fur­ther enhanc­ing brand vis­i­bil­ity and reach,” he added. 

“This recog­ni­tion can attract new cus­tomers who value pre­mium prod­ucts and are will­ing to pay a pre­mium price,” Belkhodja con­tin­ued. ​“It is our hope that these awards will strengthen our posi­tion as a top-qual­ity pro­ducer, attract new cus­tomers and grow our busi­ness.”

In the 2022/23 crop year, Tunisia pro­duced 180,000 tons of olive oil, well below the five-year aver­age of 228,000 tons but higher than recent ​‘off-years’ in the nat­ural alter­nate bear­ing cycle of the olive tree.

However, the United States Department of Agriculture pre­dicts pro­duc­tion will rebound to 250,000 tons in 2023/24. Based on his obser­va­tions, Belkhodja agrees that reach­ing the USDA esti­mate would be pos­si­ble. 

“Fortunately, this time, it rained at cru­cial times, which helped to improve the sit­u­a­tion,” he said. ​“Under the right con­di­tions, I actu­ally think it is pos­si­ble to reach 250,000 tons as pre­dicted by the USDA. In nor­mal con­di­tions, it should be closer to 200,000 to 220,000 tons.”

• World Monuments Fund