As Value of Tunisian Exports Soar, Packaged Olive Oil Struggles

Tunisian olive oil export rev­enues rose by nearly 90 per­cent in the first seven months of the 2023/24 crop year com­pared to the same period in 2022/23, accord­ing to the National Observatory of Agriculture (Onagri).

North Africa’s largest olive oil-pro­duc­ing nation exported 3.936 bil­lion Tunisian dinars (€1.159 bil­lion) between November 2024 and May 2024. Similarly, export vol­umes increased by more than 12 per­cent to 148,700 tons.

According to Donia Sfar, the export man­ager of Tesoro del Rio, Tunisia’s sub­stan­tial increase in oil export rev­enues can be attrib­uted to demand exceed­ing sup­ply in the past two crop years and the surge in global olive oil prices. However, prices have come down from mid-January record highs.

“The sig­nif­i­cant rise in sales has resulted in sub­stan­tial prof­its for the state, par­tic­u­larly in terms of for­eign exchange,” she told Olive Oil Times. ​“The value of olive oil exports is expe­ri­enc­ing impres­sive growth due to the increas­ing global demand.”

“This suc­cess has moti­vated the author­i­ties to develop the sec­tor fur­ther and expand the agri­cul­tural lands ded­i­cated to olive oil pro­duc­tion,” she added.

Sfar also cited grow­ing aware­ness of Tunisian olive oil as another rea­son for increas­ing sales from the North African coun­try. Tunisian pro­duc­ers recently earned 26 awards at the 2024 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition. Sfar’s com­pany was among the win­ners.

Onagri data show that Spain is the lead­ing des­ti­na­tion for Tunisian olive oil, with 47.4 per­cent flow­ing to Spanish ports, fol­lowed closely by Italy at 42.2 per­cent and the United States in third at 33.8 per­cent.

The obser­va­tory fur­ther reported that organic olive oil sales totaled 32,589 tons val­ued at 881 mil­lion Tunisian dinars (€259 mil­lion), rep­re­sent­ing 21.9 per­cent of the total vol­ume and 22.2 per­cent of the value.

Despite the pos­i­tive growth in olive oil exports, Tunisia’s olive oil sec­tor faces con­straints, such as low added value from bulk exports and high lev­els of bureau­cracy for pro­duc­ing, pack­ag­ing and export­ing olive oil.

Onagri data show that pack­aged olive oil exports were less than five per­cent of total organic olive oil exports, with Italy (51 per­cent), Spain (31 per­cent) and France (12 per­cent) as the main des­ti­na­tions.

“Despite these pos­i­tive indi­ca­tors, exporters are cur­rently fac­ing dif­fi­cul­ties, par­tic­u­larly in rela­tion to extended dead­lines and com­plex pro­ce­dures,” she said. ​“As a result, they are urg­ing the author­i­ties to inten­sify their efforts to elim­i­nate these obsta­cles.”

“Additionally, indus­try experts rec­om­mend estab­lish­ing a highly effi­cient pro­duc­tion and export sys­tem, with the aim of becom­ing the lead­ing global mar­ket for olive oil and cap­i­tal­iz­ing on the excep­tional qual­ity of Tunisian olive oil,” Sfar added.

Sfar believes the pri­mary weak­ness of Tunisia’s olive oil mar­kets is that most exports are in bulk, to be blended, bot­tled and re-exported by European coun­tries, which cap­ture a larger share of the prof­its.

“Eighty per­cent of exports are in bulk, result­ing in var­i­ous eco­nomic and com­mer­cial dis­ad­van­tages,” she said. ​“Certain Tunisian oils are pack­aged and sold under dif­fer­ent European brands.”

“Furthermore, export­ing olive oil in bulk leads to a loss of added value and for­eign exchange earn­ings,” Sfar added.

Despite the government’s efforts to pro­mote indi­vid­u­ally pack­aged exports, Sfar said the cur­rent trade par­a­digm had pre­vented Tunsiains from reap­ing the full ben­e­fits of higher olive oil prices that come with bot­tling, label­ing and mar­ket­ing a branded olive oil.

“These activ­i­ties not only cre­ate employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties but also enhance the value of the end prod­uct and bol­ster Tunisia’s rep­u­ta­tion as a promi­nent player in the olive oil pro­duc­tion and export mar­ket,” she said.

“Transitioning to bot­tled oil sales could increase added value and for­eign exchange earn­ings, posi­tion­ing Tunisia as a lead­ing global mar­ket for olive oil pro­duc­tion and export,” Sfar added.

Although most prod­ucts were sold in bulk, new com­pa­nies have entered the mar­ket sell­ing their prod­ucts in bot­tles.

“The prob­lem is, it is dif­fi­cult for these com­pa­nies to find pack­ag­ing, and even if they do, it is expen­sive,” Sfar said. ​“As a result, they may strug­gle to com­pete unless they tar­get the high-end mar­ket.”

Sector offi­cials antic­i­pate ris­ing costs for olive oil pro­duc­ers, with prices cur­rently rang­ing between 2 and 5.7 Tunisian dinars (€0.59 to €1.68) per kilo­gram.

As Tunisia con­tin­ues to nav­i­gate chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties in the olive oil indus­try, Sfar con­cluded that strate­gic invest­ments in pack­ag­ing, mar­ket­ing and value-added pro­duc­tion are essen­tial for sus­tained growth and com­pet­i­tive­ness on the global stage.

• Kapitalis