Tunisia’s Monastir region kicked off preparations for the 2026/27 olive season on October 5, 2026, when the Regional Commissariat for Agricultural Development (CRDA) brought growers, millers and local officials together to coordinate the harvest start date and set targets for picking and milling rates.
A Record Season to Match
The coordination meeting follows a record 2025/26 campaign in which Monastir’s roughly 64,000 hectares of olive groves, about 74% of the governorate’s farmland, produced close to 90,000 tonnes of olives and more than 18,000 tonnes of olive oil, according to the CRDA. Officials used the October 5 meeting to stress the importance of unifying efforts among growers, transporters and millers so that momentum from last season carries into the new one, and to address the practical challenge of managing olive-mill by-products safely as volumes rise.
124 Mills and a Wider National Push
Monastir enters the new season with 124 operating olive mills and a combined daily processing capacity of 1,845 tonnes of olives, giving the region enough capacity to handle a harvest on the scale of last year’s. The preparations mirror a broader ramp-up across Tunisia’s olive belt: in Sidi Bouzid, authorities are projecting around 350,000 tonnes of olives this season, with picking due to start in mid-October and 119 mills on standby, while Sousse’s agricultural office is targeting roughly 90,000 tonnes of olives, or about 18,000 tonnes of oil, with a proposed harvest opening of November 6. For buyers, a milling network running at or near full readiness ahead of schedule is a useful early signal for steady bulk Tunisian olive oil availability once the pressing season gets underway.
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FAQ
How big was Monastir’s olive harvest last season? Monastir produced a record 2025/26 harvest of around 90,000 tonnes of olives, yielding more than 18,000 tonnes of olive oil, according to the region’s Commissariat for Agricultural Development (CRDA).
How many olive mills does Monastir have for the 2026/27 season? Monastir has 124 operating olive mills with a combined daily processing capacity of about 1,845 tonnes of olives, according to CRDA figures reported ahead of the 2026/27 season.
Source: La Presse (Tunisia), via AllAfrica and Wikifarmer olive oil market digest
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