The bottled olive oil industry is evolving as buyers demand greater transparency, faster sourcing, and more reliable supply. Long shaped by traditional supplier relationships and offline dealmaking, the sector is beginning to adapt to a more digital and competitive trading environment.
For Ania Klimczak, Sales Manager for bottled olive oil at Wikifarmer, success in this competitive market comes down to combining product consistency with the speed and transparency modern buyers increasingly expect.
Managing three commercial channels
Klimczak’s role combines sales management and supply coordination across three key customer segments: retail, food service, and industry, each channel with its own technical and commercial requirements.
Retail buyers typically focus on premium presentation and quality perception, with glass bottles ranging from 250ml to 1L and a strong preference for Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
Food service clients are more price-sensitive, prioritizing larger packaging formats such as plastic bottles or aluminum tins in 1L and 5L sizes. This segment commonly sources Virgin, Extra Virgin, and Pomace olive oil, particularly for high-volume cooking and frying applications.
Industrial buyers, meanwhile, purchase in bulk formats such as 218L drums or 1000L containers. Demand is concentrated in food manufacturing—including canned fish, pizza, pesto, and ready-meal production—as well as cosmetics and dietary supplement sectors. Here, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, both conventional and organic, remains dominant, followed by refined and pomace oils.
This segmentation reflects a key industry reality: success depends on understanding that olive oil is not a single market, but many specialized markets operating simultaneously.
What it takes to succeed commercially
According to Klimczak, success in bottled olive oil sales depends on product knowledge and commercial drive.
“You need to be very proactive in approaching new customers,” Anna explains. “You also need wide knowledge about the product and to really know your suppliers.”
Persistence in building relationships with new customers is key in a market where buyers tend to remain loyal to long-standing suppliers.
Equally important is understanding supplier capabilities and aligning them with realistic customer expectations.
“You need to know your suppliers and know which customers match your profile,” Klimczak explains. “You also need to understand what targets are reachable.”
That ability to match supplier capabilities with realistic buyer expectations often determines whether opportunities convert into long-term partnerships. Trust and consistency matter more than aggressive pricing alone, says Klimczak.
What defines a successful supplier
There are successful suppliers, and there are those who struggle to convert opportunities into real deals. Klimczak says what separates them is quality and compliance.
A competitive supplier must deliver a product that consistently meets European regulatory standards while maintaining stable quality over time. However, reliable service, transparent communication, short production lead times, and organized logistics are just as important.
“You need a reliable source that maintains the same quality throughout the years. That is why it is important to work with a wide variety of suppliers,” says Klimczak.
Supplier diversification, working with multiple trusted producers, allows commercial teams to maintain supply continuity and preserve quality standards even when harvest conditions or other factors fluctuate.
In an industry heavily influenced by agricultural variability, flexibility is a commercial advantage.
The challenge of buyer habits
Klimczak says that firmly established purchasing behaviour and resistance to change are among the most challenging aspects of her job, even though the sector is advancing technologically.
“The most challenging part is finding the right customer and convincing them to change their current suppliers,” Klimczak says.
Many olive oil importers still prefer traditional supplier relationships built over years of direct contact.
“They still prefer deals being closed by phone or email,” Klimczak notes. “They like having personal contact with their supplier and being able to reach them directly.”
This preference has made some buyers cautious about marketplace-driven sourcing solutions. For companies like Wikifarmer, the challenge is not simply introducing digital tools—it is building trust strong enough to overcome long-standing industry habits. Klimczak says she sees this transition as inevitable.
A digital future
Klimczak is optimistic about the industry’s direction. She believes younger generations of buyers will increasingly adopt digital-first sourcing solutions, accelerating purchasing decisions while improving transparency and supplier visibility.
“For me, the future is online business,” Klimczak says. “I truly believe traditional business will slowly disappear, and the new generation will seek online solutions.”
She sees digital sourcing not only as faster and more efficient, but as fundamentally more transparent for both buyers and suppliers.
At the same time, olive oil continues strengthening its global reputation as a premium health product. Consumers are becoming more informed about nutritional benefits and are increasingly willing to pay for quality they can trust.
“People are searching for good-quality olive oil and are willing to pay a good price for it,” Klimczak says.
This creates major opportunities for suppliers who can combine high product standards with strong digital visibility and operational reliability. For an industry built on tradition, digitalization may be the defining factor for future growth.
“Olive oil has been traded for centuries in a very traditional way,” Klimczak says. “I really believe now is the time to modernize it.”
