The Tunisian olive oil exports reached 109 thousand tons from November 2020 to the end of March 2021, yielding revenues of 852 million dinars (MD), against 144 thousand tons and 895 MD, recorded during the same period of the 2019/2020 season. A substantial drop of 140 thousand tons was recorded compared to the record production of the past season (440 thousand tons), National Oil Office (ONH) Commercial Director Moez Ben Amor said in a statement to TAP. He added that despite the drop in the volume of sales during the first five months of the 2020/2021 season, the selling prices for this season are acceptable compared to last season's. The olive oil selling prices showed a 30% rise in Tunisian dinar, which helped improve the revenues of the production system' stakeholders. Ben Amor pointed out that the exports are shared out in 11,519 thousand tons of canned olive oil and 97,538 thousand tons of bulk olive oil.
The exports of canned olive oil have edged up by 34% in terms of quantity during the last five years. During the first 5 months of the export campaign, 11,519 tons (worth 130 MD) were marketed against 8,586 tons, during the same period of the past season. The commercial director explained that these results show the interest in canned olive oil which gives an added value to this Tunisian product on the world markets, in addition to the efforts of private exporters to reinforce the presence of Tunisian brands abroad. Regarding Tunisia's olive oil export quota to the European Union (EU), Ben Amor affirmed that the target of 56 700 tons will be reached by the end of the current year. He stressed the need to develop the canned olive oil and organic olive oil exports under this quota, especially since these two products have a strong added value.
On the other hand, he indicated that the European market monopolizes the largest share of Tunisian olive oil exports at 70%. Tunisia exported 23% of the quantities of olive oil to the North American market against 19% during the last season. The olive oil exports to the Asian and African continents are still low with a quota that hardly exceeded 3%, which requires, according to him, additional efforts to access these markets that have huge import capacities, such as the Chinese, Indian and Japanese markets. The official specified that the Canadian market had consumed during the first 5 months of the export season, more than 3 thousand tons of canned olive oil, the United States (over 2,000 tons), the French market (more than 2,000 tons) and the Belgian market (over 1,300 tons). The canned olive oil sales in the Gulf countries such as Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, showed an increase. During the 2019-2020 season, Tunisia exported about 365 thousand tons of olive oil with a total revenue of 2 billion and 225 million dinars (about 4.25% of the 2020 budget) to 54 countries.