Tunisia: Olive oil revenues at €215m

Exports of olive oil in Tunisia for 2010/2011 increased to 107,000 tonnes or €215 million. The season of olive oil starts on November 1 and ends October 31 of the next year. Shokry Byou Kahaih, manager of agriculture production of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (MAE) mentioned the massive increase in profits. EU is the biggest importer of olive oil from Tunisia followed by the United States with capacity of 25 per cent of Tunisian olive oil exports annually, referring to an increase by 5 pr cent versus the level of the previous year. USA also imports most of the organic olive oil production of Tunisia.    Last season Tunisia exported more than 10,000 tonnes of the organic olive oil to the United states and Europe. It well-known that Tunisia is the second biggest source of olive oil in the world after the EU as it exports 120,000 tonness. The rest of its production, 45,000 tonnes, goes towards domestic consumption. Kahaih, manager of agriculture production of the MAE said that production of olive oil is expected to reach 180,000 tonnes, 40,000 tonnes of which will be left to domestic consumption  and 140,000 tonnes will be exported. Tunisia is second after Spain in olive agricultural land as there are 74 million olive trees planted on 1.7 million hectare, one third of total agricultural land.