`Tunisian Olive Oil Exports Reach Record High - Olive Oil Times

Tunisian Olive Oil Exports Reach Record High

By Isabel Putinja
Jul. 10, 2015 09:34 UTC

Figures released by Tunisia’s min­istry of agri­cul­ture reveal that exports of olive oil reached a record high of 242,000 tons from November 2014 to the end of June 2015.

According to a press release pub­lished this week by the min­istry, the vol­ume of exports is expected to rise to 260,000 tons by the end of the sea­son. This is a seven-fold increase com­pared to the pre­vi­ous sea­son with this year’s exports rep­re­sent­ing rev­enues of close to 1.5 bil­lion Tunisian Dinars ($760 mil­lion).

While many European olive pro­duc­ers expe­ri­enced dis­as­trous har­vests dur­ing the 2014/15 sea­son, Tunisia has enjoyed record yields with an increase of 300 per­cent com­pared to the 2013/14 sea­son.

Seventy-three per­cent of Tunisian olive oil was exported to the European Union — with 39 per­cent deliv­ered to Italy and 28 per­cent to Spain — while 17 per­cent was imported by the United States. Spanish imports of Tunisian olive oil increased by 831 per­cent com­pared to the pre­vi­ous year, while in Italy this fig­ure stands at 255 per­cent.

Due to reduced inter­na­tional sup­ply, Tunisian pro­duc­ers were able to take advan­tage of higher prices for their oil. At the end of December 2014, they received €2.73 per kilo­gram which increased to €3.48 per kilo­gram by the end of June 2015.

Tunisia has expe­ri­enced an excep­tional agri­cul­tural sea­son thanks to the olive crop which is good news for the oth­er­wise bleak Tunisian econ­omy.



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