Olive Oil Production Seen as Path to Revitalization in Tunisia's Gafsa Region

Increasing olive pro­duc­tion in the cen­tral Tunisian region of Gafsa is one strat­egy to diver­sify the region’s heav­ily min­ing-depen­dent econ­omy, revi­tal­ize land­scapes and pro­mote devel­op­ment.

A his­tor­i­cal oasis once heav­ily influ­enced by the Romans, Gafsa is one of Tunisia’s lead­ing pro­duc­ers of phos­phate, an essen­tial ingre­di­ent in fer­til­iz­ers, with more than 800 mil­lion tons of reserves. The sec­tor con­tributes 4 per­cent to the national GDP and 15 per­cent to its annual exports.

Despite Gafsa’s phos­phate wealth, its pop­u­la­tion has not ben­e­fit­ted from the sec­tor, accord­ing to the World Bank, and has one of the coun­try’s high­est poverty and unem­ploy­ment rates.

A new gen­er­a­tion of young peo­ple from the region are work­ing with local offi­cials to imple­ment the Gafsa Vision 2050, which seeks to diver­sify the econ­omy while restor­ing the min­ing-rav­aged envi­ron­ment.

A 2012 report from the African Development Bank high­lighted the poten­tial for olive cul­ti­va­tion in the region, home to 700 hectares of oases clas­si­fied as Globally Important Agricultural Systems by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.

Along with almond and other veg­etable cul­ti­va­tion, the bank esti­mated that renewed olive cul­ti­va­tion could cre­ate 3,400 agri­cul­tural jobs, pro­vid­ing direct ben­e­fits to 10,000 peo­ple and indi­rect ben­e­fits to another 60,000. About 300,000 peo­ple live in the region.

According to local media, farm­ers expect to har­vest 88,000 tons of olives in the 2023/24 crop year, a sig­nif­i­cant increase from the 50,000 har­vested last year, which yielded 12,000 tons of olive oil. The crop pro­vides the region with around 3 bil­lion dinars (€900 mil­lion) in rev­enue.

Unlike last year, which saw a decline in olive pro­duc­tion due to drought and high tem­per­a­tures, weather con­di­tions were more favor­able lead­ing up to the cur­rent har­vest.

Overall, offi­cials in the coun­try expect olive oil pro­duc­tion to rise from last year’s dis­ap­point­ing yield of 180,000 tons. Generally, west-cen­tral Tunisia accounts for about 35 per­cent of annual olive oil pro­duc­tion.

The Tunisian gov­ern­ment announced plans to boost the country’s olive oil indus­try ear­lier this year. The goal is for Tunisia to pro­duce 250,000 tons of extra vir­gin olive oil each year, export 200,000 tons of olive oil annu­ally and raise domes­tic con­sump­tion to 50,000 tons annu­ally by 2035.

So far, Tunisia has pro­duced an aver­age of 228,000 tons of olive oil each year over the past half-decade, includ­ing a record-high 440,000 tons in the 2019/20 crop year, accord­ing to data from the International Olive Council.

However, researchers have raised con­cerns regard­ing the impacts of cli­mate change on Tunisia’s olive oil sec­tor. In a 2022 report, the National Observatory for Agriculture esti­mated that olive oil pro­duc­tion could fall by 70 per­cent if noth­ing is done to reduce green­house gas emis­sions.

A sep­a­rate report from the Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights found that cli­mate change is also threat­en­ing Gafsa’s oases, with drought cited as the most sig­nif­i­cant con­cern from the lack of rain­fall.

With the help of fund­ing from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, 55 per­cent of Gafsa’s olive har­vest comes from irri­gated groves.

Officials esti­mate that irri­gated olive groves will con­tribute to 53 per­cent of this year’s har­vest in Tunisia, an esti­mated 106,000 tons of olive oil.

However, the impacts of the region’s increas­ingly hot and dry cli­mate, com­bined with the phos­phate industry’s deple­tion of water resources, have strained the farm­ers, who have led sit-ins and protests at phos­phate mines.

In July, a group of farm­ers in Gafsa protested against irri­ga­tion cuts that lasted more than a month.

In response, President Kaïs Saïed called on pub­lic offi­cials to ​“put an end as quickly as pos­si­ble to the reg­u­lar water and elec­tric­ity cuts in sev­eral regions of the coun­try,” includ­ing Gafsa, adding that ​“out­ages can­not be jus­ti­fied by rou­tine main­te­nance oper­a­tions, which should have been car­ried out before the sum­mer sea­son.”

Gafsa Vision 2050 has been one of the steps taken by the Tunisian gov­ern­ment to bridge the gap between pro­tes­tors and the min­ing sec­tor by cre­at­ing new oppor­tu­ni­ties, includ­ing devel­op­ing the agri­cul­tural sec­tor.

Despite the chal­lenges, offi­cials remain opti­mistic. Dorsaf Ben Ahmed, an agri­cul­tural pro­duc­tion rep­re­sen­ta­tive from the coun­try’s agri­cul­ture min­istry, expects Tunisia’s olive indus­try to flour­ish.

He spoke of the improve­ment in the gen­eral con­di­tion of olive trees in most pro­duc­tion regions fol­low­ing heavy rain­falls recorded in May and June, along with suc­cess­ful efforts to curb pest infes­ta­tions.

• Natural Resource Governance Institute
• Agence Tunis Afrique Press