Tunisia’s 2025/26 olive oil campaign is now effectively closed, and the final numbers confirm it as the biggest season in the country’s history.
The headline numbers
Production for the season came in at approximately 500,000 tonnes, putting Tunisia in second place globally behind Spain. Export volumes over the first eight months of the season ran 56.7% ahead of the same period the year before. On revenue, Tunisian olive oil exports generated 4.5 billion dinars over that same eight-month stretch — representing 53% of the country’s total agri-food exports, sold across 66 international markets.
What drove the record
The scale of this season reflects several years of investment converging at once: expanded planted area, government subsidy and storage programs supporting producers through the campaign, and a growing base of international buyers actively seeking Tunisian supply as competitors like Greece faced tighter harvests.
FAQ
Does “second-largest producer” mean second-largest exporter too? Not necessarily — production and export rankings can differ based on domestic consumption. Tunisia has also been separately reported among the world’s largest exporters by volume in recent seasons.
What happens next for Tunisia’s olive sector? Attention now shifts to the 2026/27 season, with trees flowering through spring and summer 2026 and a first real read on volume not possible until autumn.
Source: Arab News, OFI Magazine