`Lower Yields in Tunisia Push Prices Higher - Olive Oil Times

Lower Yields in Tunisia Push Prices Higher

By Paolo DeAndreis
May. 6, 2021 12:23 UTC

The price of Tunisian olive oil exports has increased sub­stan­tially on inter­na­tional mar­kets in recent months.

From November 2020 to March 2021, export prices increased by 30-per­cent com­pared with the pre­vi­ous crop year.

According to the fig­ures released by the National Olive Oil Office (ONH), Tunisia exported 109,000 tons of olive oil in that period, down from the 144,000 tons recorded in the same period of the pre­vi­ous year.

See Also:Tunisian Exporters See Opportunities Abroad

While the vol­umes were affected by the olive oil pro­duc­tion decrease in the coun­try, prices per unit grew. Overall rev­enues reached 852 mil­lion dinar (€258 mil­lion) against the 895 mil­lion dinar (€271 mil­lion) in the 2019/20 fis­cal year.

Moez Ben Amor, ONH com­mer­cial direc­tor, said olive oil pro­duc­tion after the lat­est har­vest dropped to around 300,000 tons against the 440,000 tons of the pre­vi­ous year.

However, in a state­ment to the local TAP news agency, Ben Amor focused on the sell­ing price, which improved con­sid­er­ably com­pared to the pre­vi­ous sea­son. The 30-per­cent increase means sub­stan­tial rev­enue growth for the whole pro­duc­tion and export chain, he added.

In the last five years, ONH recorded con­tin­u­ous growth for pack­aged olive oil exports, which grew in vol­ume by 34 per­cent.

Those vol­umes reached 11,519 tons in the cur­rent sea­son, equal to 130 mil­lion dinar (€39 mil­lion) in rev­enue, against the 97,538 tons of bulk olive oil exports. In the same period of the pre­vi­ous year, 8,586 tons of pack­aged olive oil were exported.

Packaged olive oil is the focus of sev­eral ini­tia­tives by the Tunisian author­i­ties, who in recent months have worked to lower bureau­cratic hur­dles and pro­mote prod­uct qual­ity through the dig­i­tal­iza­tion of pro­ce­dures and new qual­ity labels.

Ben Amor con­firmed the rel­e­vance of pack­aged olive oil and extra vir­gin olive oil for the added value they rep­re­sent on the mar­ket, even more on the inter­na­tional mar­kets.

The OHN offi­cial specif­i­cally referred to the trade agree­ments with the European Union, which allows local pro­duc­ers to export 57,600 tons of their prod­uct to the E.U. each crop year.

According to Ben Amor, almost 70 per­cent of all Tunisian olive oil exports are des­tined for Europe, with 23 per­cent going to the North American mar­ket, which grew from 19 per­cent in the pre­vi­ous year.

See Also:Trade News

More specif­i­cally, in the first five months of the fis­cal year, the United States imported 2,000 tons of pack­aged olive oil, Ben Amor said, while Canada imported 3,000 tons. The ONH added that sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates had also increased.

Ben Amor empha­sized that the grow­ing inter­est in Tunisian olive oil abroad fueled pack­aged olive oil exports, which in turn allowed exporters to strengthen Tunisian brands on the inter­na­tional mar­kets.

He added that both Asian and African coun­tries rep­re­sent oppor­tu­ni­ties for Tunisian exporters, high­light­ing India, Japan and China, coun­tries where olive oil pop­u­lar­ity and imports are steadily grow­ing.

Increasing exports are also fuel­ing invest­ments in the Cho Group, one of the major Tunisian pro­duc­ers and pack­aged olive oil exporters.

According to Agence Ecofin, the International Finance Corporation and the Dutch Fund Development Finance Fund are invest­ing €12 mil­lion in the com­pany to fuel the expan­sion of its pack­aged olive oil export oper­a­tions.

Today the com­pany sells its pack­aged olive oil in 24 coun­tries and some of its prod­ucts have proved their qual­ity, includ­ing Terra Delyssa, which won a Silver Award in the 2020 NYIOOC World Olive Oil Competition.



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