Tunisia has increased its olive oil exports sharply so far this season thanks to a higher harvest and weak crops in rivals Greece and Italy, the country's olive oil board chief said.
The rise in sales abroad helped the North African country turn a farming trade deficit into a strong surplus.
"The initial estimates we had put the olive oil output at about 210,000 tonnes. The updated estimates indicate that Tunisia's olive oil production will be more than 210,000 tonnes," Fehri Soulless, chairman and chief executive of Olive Oil National Office, the government arm that oversees the sector.
The olive oil sector accounts for around half of Tunisia's agricultural exports, which represent more than 10 percent the country's total sales abroad.
More than 500,000 families benefit from the labour intensive olive oil industry, with 56 million olive trees covering about 1.5 million hectares of the country.
"The estimated harvest of 210,000 tonnes or more is a good level compared to the average of 170,000-180,000 tonnes recorded for the past decade," the official told Reuters. "It is possible that we will reach a harvest of 240,000 to 250,000 tonnes this year."
Tunisia's olive crop yields vary sharply because of droughts. It gathered a record 300,000 tonnes of olive oil in 1994 and its lowest crop was 50,000 tonnes in 2002. Soulless said a good domestic harvest and lower olive crops in Italy and Greece meant Tunisia had increased the volume of sales abroad at higher prices.
"Tunisia's higher harvest coincides with brisk business on international markets, mostly in Europe, as Greece, which had been used to supply the European Union with its high quality oil, has a weak harvest this year," he said.
"The olive oil crop is seen weak in Italy this year," he added. As a result, Tunisia sold more oil in the European Union, its main export outlet, at higher prices.
"Our traditional clients, mainly big companies with huge sale networks in Europe and elsewhere, were buying more oil from Tunisia. Other old clients, who imported oil from us in the past years, returned to our market this year," he added.
He said prices had risen to between 2,200 and 2,300 euros per tonne and had touched 2,400 euros, compared with a range of 1,800-1,900 euros in previous years. "We projected Tunisia's olive oil exports for the whole year at 120,000 tonnes.
It is possible exports will be 130,000 or 140,000 tonnes," he said. Latest Agriculture Ministry figures showed the value of olive oil exports at 277.8 million dinners ($216.6 million) in the first quarter of this year from 35.3 million dinners in the same period in 2003.
Tunisia posted a farm trade surplus of 139 million dinners in the first three months, against a deficit of 113.7 million in the same period last year.
Soulless said private exporter control two-thirds of the country's total exports of olive oil as part of a government drive to open the economy further to the private sector.