Tunis/Tunisia — The development of the olive oil sector through improving its competitiveness and its value added was at the heart of the 28th meeting of the Tunisian Council of olive oil in package, held Tuesday in Tunis, in the presence of Minister of Industry, Neila Nouira Gongi.

Tunisia now exports its olive oil to more than 60 countries in the world and the quantities of packaged olive oil reached 30,000 tonnes in 2020, it emerged from the meeting.

The country seeks to achieve a "qualitative leap" in the export of packaged olive oil, especially since Tunisia has established a strategic plan to develop this sector during the five-year period 2023-2027, said the Minister.

To promote the exports of its olive oil increasingly popular on world markets, Tunisia has worked since the creation of the Fund for the promotion of olive oil in package in 2006to enhance this flagship product by improving its value added through the packaging industry and the promotion of purely Tunisian labels.

Among the objectives of the strategic plan for the promotion of olive oil are increasing the consumption of this oil on the local market, exploring new export markets and developing public-private partnerships.

Participants in the meeting of the Tunisian Council of olive oil in package discussed issues related to Tunisia's preparations to participate in the international exhibition of food products to be held in June 2022 in New York. The U.S. market is now a promising market for the export of Tunisian olive oil.

391 thousand tonnes of Tunisian olive oil were exported to this market during the campaign 2019-2020.

Indeed, the Tunisian Council of olive oil in package is responsible, among other tasks, for setting the terms and methods of distribution of the premium support programme for the promotion and marketing of olive oil and the premium support the export program carried out by the emerging exporter.