Production, Exports Down in Tunisia but Optimism Remains High

Summary

Tunisia’s olive oil pro­duc­tion is expected to decrease by 28.5 per­cent this year, with exports also pre­dicted to decline, due to drought con­di­tions in some olive-grow­ing regions of the coun­try. Despite the decrease, CEO Chokri Bayoudh is opti­mistic about the upcom­ing sea­son and plans to dou­ble exports of refined oil over the next five years, with Tunisia also seek­ing new export mar­kets and invest­ments in the olive sec­tor.

Figures released by Tunisia’s National Office for Oil reveal that olive oil pro­duc­tion is expected to reach 100,000 tons this year, which rep­re­sents a 28.5 per­cent decrease com­pared to the 140,000 tons pro­duced in the 2015/2016 crop year. Exports are expected to dip to 75,000 com­pared to 100,000 last year.

Chokri Bayoudh, CEO of Tunisia’s National Office for Oil, told the Tunisian press agency Tunis Afrique Presse (TAP) the fall in pro­duc­tion is due to drought con­di­tions in some olive-grow­ing regions of the coun­try.

Figures released by the National Office on April 10 reveal that from November 2016 to March 2017, the coun­try exported 49,076 tons of olive oil. Of this fig­ure, 42,483 tons were exported in bulk to 20 coun­tries, with Italy, Spain, the US, and France being the largest importers, and Morocco at 5^th place. The remain­ing 6,593 tons were exported as refined olive oil to 39 coun­tries.

Over the past five years, 20,000 tons of refined olive oil have been exported, com­pared to only 7,000 tons dur­ing the pre­vi­ous five years. This increase reflects aims to dou­ble exports of refined oil to 40,000 tons over the next five years, Bayoudh said.

As reported by Afrique La Tribune, Bayoudh told Tunisian radio that he’s opti­mistic about the upcom­ing 2017 – 2018 sea­son and expected a good year for both pro­duc­tion and exports. Keen to make fur­ther invest­ments in the olive sec­tor, Tunisia is also await­ing a loan from the World Bank for the devel­op­ment of olive plan­ta­tions and for­est resources, as well as assis­tance to cit­i­zens who would like to fur­ther develop these sec­tors.

A Tunisian del­e­ga­tion also recently vis­ited the UK and Japan to attract poten­tial new export mar­kets, and the coun­try is set to host the 4^th edi­tion of the Sousse International Olive Fair from April 20 to 23, with 120 exhibitors attend­ing from Europe and the Middle East.

In 2014/2015, Tunisia expe­ri­enced a record olive har­vest, pro­duc­ing 340,000 tons of olive oil, which in that year made it the sec­ond world pro­ducer after Spain.

In the same year, Tunisia exported 304,000 tons of olive oil and was the largest exporter. Since then, it has taken fourth place as pro­ducer, and third place as exporter after Spain and Italy.

• Office National de l’Huile


• Afrique La Tribune