Falling Prices and Fraud Claims Cloud Tunisia’s Olive Oil Boom

Summary

Despite increased pro­duc­tion and exports, Tunisian olive oil pro­duc­ers are fac­ing declin­ing rev­enues, with export prices drop­ping sig­nif­i­cantly. Concerns have been raised over poten­tial mar­ket spec­u­la­tion and fraud in the olive oil trade, prompt­ing calls for increased over­sight and trans­parency mea­sures.

The lat­est cam­paign has damp­ened hopes of higher mar­gins for Tunisian olive oil pro­duc­ers.

Official data released by the National Observatory on Agriculture (ONAGRI) show declin­ing rev­enues despite higher pro­duc­tion and export vol­umes.

Between November 2024 and September 2025, Tunisia exported 268,600 tons of olive oil, a 41.3 per­cent increase over the pre­vi­ous year. Of this total, 77.7 per­cent was extra vir­gin olive oil.

Yet, export rev­enues fell 28.4 per­cent com­pared to the aver­age of the pre­vi­ous two years, total­ing TND 3.6 bil­lion (approx­i­mately €1.04 bil­lion).

According to ONAGRI fig­ures, pro­duc­ers sold one kilo­gram of olive oil abroad for an aver­age of €2.7, down sharply from €5.1 in the 2023/2024 cam­paign — a 48-per­cent drop.

The low­est prices apply to bulk olive oil, which accounts for roughly 78 per­cent of all exports. Packaged organic extra vir­gin olive oil, rep­re­sent­ing just 6.3 per­cent of ship­ments, fetched about €4.1 per kilo­gram.

ONAGRI stated that 58 per­cent of low-priced olive oil was exported to Europe, pri­mar­ily to Spain and Italy, while 26.4 per­cent was shipped to North America. Such prices, which are well below inter­na­tional aver­ages, are expected to erode pro­duc­ers’ mar­gins and limit their invest­ment capac­ity.

As Tunisia read­ies for another large har­vest, observers warn of fur­ther mar­ket spec­u­la­tion. In recent weeks, Italian pro­duc­ers and farm­ing groups have raised con­cerns that the low prices may be linked to fraud, poten­tially under­min­ing the global olive oil trade.

Italian MEP Dario Nardella, a mem­ber of the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development (Comagri), sub­mit­ted a for­mal ques­tion to the European Commission over alleged finan­cial and trade fraud involv­ing Tunisian olive oil.

Nardella referred to the Tunisian exporter Bioliva Med Company, not­ing that ​“accord­ing to inves­ti­ga­tions, Bioliva would have accu­mu­lated debts exceed­ing €170 mil­lion and engaged in spec­u­la­tive and irreg­u­lar pay­ment prac­tices, allow­ing exports at abnor­mally low prices.”

“These dynam­ics would have caused Tunisian olive oil prices to col­lapse to €2.8 per kilo­gram, cre­at­ing mar­ket dis­tor­tions and seri­ous risks for the sta­bil­ity of the European olive sec­tor and for con­sumer pro­tec­tion regard­ing prod­uct ori­gin and qual­ity,” he added.

He asked the Commission to assess the scope and grav­ity of the alleged fraud and, if con­firmed, to adopt mea­sures to strengthen over­sight and trans­parency.

Days ear­lier, four Italian MEPs had filed a sim­i­lar ques­tion to the Commission, warn­ing that spec­u­la­tive prac­tices might vio­late cur­rent reg­u­la­tions gov­ern­ing the olive oil trade.

In a recent state­ment, the Italian farm­ing asso­ci­a­tion Coldiretti stated, ​“Speculative prac­tices cor­ner domes­tic pro­duc­ers and flood mar­kets with low-qual­ity prod­ucts,” call­ing for stepped-up inspec­tions by law enforce­ment, the Ministry of Agriculture (MASAF), and the ICQRF qual­ity-con­trol agency.

Meanwhile, Tunisian farm­ers’ rep­re­sen­ta­tive Walid Hababou told La Presse that both olive and olive oil prices remain unsta­ble, with cur­rent local prices rang­ing between TND 12 and 13 (about €3.2 to €3.7).

On a local radio pro­gram, Lotfi Riahi, head of the Consumers’ Guidance Organization, urged the gov­ern­ment to ban bulk olive oil exports to pre­serve value and pro­tect the national prod­uct.

In a late devel­op­ment, Reuters reported that a Tunisian court has released on bail Abdelaziz Makhloufi, head of one of the country’s largest olive oil pro­duc­ers and exporters. Makhloufi was arrested last year as part of an inves­ti­ga­tion into a state-owned farm in Sfax Governorate, which is home to 360,000 olive trees.