Container loading (how much fits a 20ft)
Roughly how much spice fits a 20ft container — a question asked constantly and answered badly everywhere.
A 20ft container holds ~18–22 MT of dense seed spices (cumin, coriander) in bags, but far less of bulky low-density product like whole dried chilli, which cubes out (fills the volume) long before it weighs out. The binding constraint for chilli is volume, not the ~28 MT payload — which is why chilli ships light.
What this page does not tell you
- Exact per-spice fill
- Fill depends on packing (jute vs PP, bale vs loose) and product density; we give the volume-vs-weight principle, not a false single tonnage.
Sources
- CBI — Entering the European market for spices and herbs· Tier 2, retrieved 2026-07-16