Tunisian Officials See Bright Future for Local Olive Oil Industry

The ongo­ing efforts to expand Tunisian olive oil pro­duc­tion have led the coun­try to sig­nif­i­cantly increase the num­ber of olive groves in the last decades, boost­ing exports.

Tunisia’s National Olive Oil Office (ONH) said the olive grove sur­face area has expanded from 1,743,000 hectares in 2011 to 1,960,000 in 2022.

“We expect fur­ther rel­e­vant increases in the over­all sur­face in the next three years,” Hamed Daly Hassen, the chief exec­u­tive of the ONH, told Olive Oil Times.

According to ONH, Tunisia pro­duced an annual aver­age of 205,000 tons of olive oil over the past decade, approx­i­mately seven per­cent of all global pro­duc­tion. From 2001 to 2010, annual aver­age yields were about 137,000 tons.

“One of the rel­e­vant dri­vers of Tunisian pro­duc­tion growth is the plant­ing of new olive groves,” Hassen said. ​“The other key is cli­mate change and how it affects tra­di­tional olive grow­ing in the coun­try.”

Hassen said approx­i­mately 93 per­cent of Tunisian olive groves are rain­fed. ​“This means that they are highly affected by the drought,” he said. ​“In the last three years, the phe­nom­e­non has been affect­ing the crops in areas such as Sfax, where most Tunisian olive pro­duc­tion is located.”

Additionally, a large per­cent­age of rain­fed olive trees in the coun­try are at least 100 years old. Their yield is not com­pa­ra­ble to younger trees’ pro­duc­tion poten­tial.

“The reju­ve­na­tion of olive crops is one of the prob­lems pro­duc­ers face,” Fahd Ben Ameur, the mar­ket­ing man­ager of the Tunisian olive oil exporter Bulla Regia, told Olive Oil Times.

He indi­cated that water scarcity has exac­er­bated the effects of the olive trees’ nat­ural alter­nate bear­ing cycle.

“It is easy to notice,” Ben Ameur said. ​“In low years, when rain­fall is scarce, almost 40 per­cent of pro­duc­tion comes from the few irri­gated groves in the coun­try. In a plen­ti­ful sea­son, their con­tri­bu­tion is reduced to less than 10 per­cent.”

According to the ONH, Tunisian olive oil con­sump­tion remains well below its poten­tial, lim­ited to 30,000 to 35,000 tons per annum. ONH offi­cials said this is mostly due to the price of olive oil and the com­pe­ti­tion from cheaper oils avail­able on the mar­ket.

Increasing con­sumer aware­ness about olive oil’s health ben­e­fits is the goal of cur­rent ONH efforts to pro­mote the prod­uct, along with adding value to the ris­ing pro­file of Tunisian olive oil on inter­na­tional mar­kets.

As a result of low domes­tic con­sump­tion, the coun­try exports the vast major­ity of its pro­duc­tion. On aver­age, Tunisia exported 175,000 tons annu­ally in the last 10 years, mak­ing it one of the most rel­e­vant global olive oil exporters.

One of the keys to the country’s export growth is the invest­ment in olive oil qual­ity over the last 30 years. The ONH said only 30 per­cent of the olive oil pro­duced in the coun­try was at extra vir­gin grade in 1990. Now, this fig­ure exceeds 70 per­cent.

Since the export sec­tor expanded to pri­vate-owned com­pa­nies in 1996, for­eign ship­ments have grown.

“One of the rel­e­vant trends we are notic­ing in the last decade is the expo­nen­tial growth of branded bot­tled olive oil, whereas the tra­di­tional Tunisian exports still hap­pen in bulk,” Ben Ameur said. ​“Many believe the future of Tunisian olive oil is in the bot­tled prod­uct.”

ONH and local orga­ni­za­tions have long pushed for growth in branded and bot­tled olive oil exports, as this con­tributes to a higher value for the prod­uct on the inter­na­tional mar­ket.

“Annual growth for bot­tled olive oil pro­duc­tion in the coun­try in the last decade is around 10 per­cent,” Hassen said.

Organic olive oil exports are also on the rise. ​“Organic pro­duc­tion in 2021 exceeded 105,000 tons, and it rep­re­sented 44 per­cent of the country’s pro­duc­tion,” Hassen said. ​“It was 10 per­cent back in 2012, ​“Hassen said. ​“In 2021, 28 per­cent of olive oil exports were organic.”

The ONH said in the cur­rent crop year, about 30,000 tons of pack­aged olive oil was exported from an esti­mated 190,000 tons of pro­duc­tion. ​“That shows that the efforts of both pub­lic insti­tu­tions and pri­vate com­pa­nies are pay­ing out,” the ONH said.

“Our main goal is how to add value to the exports,” Hassen added. ​“That is also why we are focused on the growth of bot­tled olive oil and organic olive exports. This is how it will develop.”

Hassen noted how the efforts to expand pack­aged olive oil and increase its per­cent­age of exports started in 2007.

“The efforts went ahead despite sev­eral dif­fi­cul­ties, mainly related to the high volatil­ity of olive oil prices in the inter­na­tional mar­kets and the increase in national pro­duc­tion costs,” Hassen said.

While the United States and Canada remain two of the most rel­e­vant des­ti­na­tions for Tunisian olive oil exports, a sig­nif­i­cant por­tion crossed the Mediterranean to the European Union. The key is the duty-free agree­ment, which cov­ers up to 56,700 tons of Tunisian exports.

“That quota was com­pletely used in the last few years as demand grew from European importers, mostly Spanish and Italian,” Hassen noted.

According to the ONH, the agree­ment with the European Union should be revised, given Tunisian olive oil qual­ity.

“In 2016, the European Parliament adopted a reg­u­la­tion that replaced monthly quo­tas with an annual quota,” Hassen said.

“This deci­sion increased flex­i­bil­ity for European oper­a­tors to max­i­mize their duty-free olive oil imports from Tunisia, but it does not facil­i­tate the devel­op­ment of added value Tunisian olive oil,” he con­cluded.