Follow our new olive oil’s journey from the groves to our bottles.

At the start of 2025, we set out to find an affordable olive oil we could truly stand behind - something fresh, traceable, and responsibly made, without cutting corners on quality for the sake of price. We wanted an everyday staple that aligned with what we care about, from sustainable practices and transparency to authenticity (and taste, of course!). After a long hard search, we landed on the best solution to meet our standards: buying olive oil in bulk and bottling it ourselves, so we can offer it exclusively to Lufavores and pass the savings directly on to you.

Founded nearly 30 years ago in Sfax, Tunisia, CHO was created to give Tunisian olive oil the recognition it always deserved. At the time, much of the country’s harvest was being quietly shipped off to Europe, blended with lower-quality oils, and sold under foreign labels. The quality was there, but the credit wasn’t. Frustrated by the lack of visibility, a group of local farmers and millers in Sakiet Eddaier came together to flip the script.

The team knew the land, the trees, and the rhythms of the harvest - all that was missing was the infrastructure. Officially breaking soil in 1996, they took charge of the entire process, from tending their trees to pressing the olives and bottling the oil themselves. Their hands-on approach has since grown into a fully integrated system powered by over 2,000 team members working between Tunisia and CHO’s Canadian hub in Montreal. 

In the desert-like groves of Tunisia, olive trees grow with almost no intervention. Spaced 20 to 30 metres apart, each tree’s roots stretch underground in search of scarce rainwater in a way that makes irrigation practices unnecessary. The harsh climate that challenges most crops actually works in the trees’ favour, producing hardy, resilient olives that grow easily without synthetic pesticides by design. It’s exactly what olives need to ripen slowly and build a concentration of flavour - resulting in a self-sustaining environment that’s truly in sync with the land. 

With over a dozen international certifications under their belt, they’ve built their well-deserved reputation. Since CHO controls every step of the journey, they’ve become the first olive oil producer in the world to offer full traceability, backed by IBM’s Food Trust system. Strategically built on a circular model, nothing goes to waste: olive pits are turned into green coal (a sustainable biomass fuel), and a nutrient-rich by-product called olein is used in soaps and cosmetics. Meanwhile, the groves are constantly expanding, with 100,000 saplings planted each year - aiming not just to preserve, but to restore.

Once harvested, the olives are pressed that same day without heat or chemicals. It’s a cold-extraction process designed to preserve the oil’s natural flavour and integrity, producing clean, extra virgin olive oil with nothing added and nothing taken away. Every batch is tested in CHO’s onsite lab (the only facility of its kind in Tunisia) to guarantee the highest standards of purity, freshness, and taste. And once it lands here, we take over. With the help of our local network, we bottle the oil to keep it exclusive to the Marketplace and affordable for every pantry. 

Backed by such responsible roots, this oil is made to end up in just about everything. Knowing how it was grown, picked, pressed, tested, and bottled makes it all the more satisfying to cook with - whether poured into hot pans, stirred into dressings, or drizzled over whatever’s on the table. When we set out to find something traceable, responsibly made, and easy to keep on hand, this oil is exactly what we had in mind.