Tunisia on Wednesday set farmgate olive oil prices 1,850 and 2,200 dinars ($1,541-$1,833) per tonne for the November 2004-October 2005 period. The state-run Office National de l' Hula said the price for super extra virgin would be at 2,200 dinars per tonne, up 4.76 percent from the November 2003-October 2004 season. The Office said the tonne of ordinary Laminate would be priced at 1,850 dinars, 5.71 percent higher than in the previous period.
Olive oil accounts for half of Tunisia's farm exports. Traders say main factors for the Office's pricing policy were the level of olive oil output and the defence of the countries export market share.
Tunisia is allowed to sell 56,000 tonnes of oil olive duty-free tax per year in the European Union market under a trade association agreement with the 25-nation bloc. Traders say the higher prices for the current season were mainly due to an expected lower harvest this period, which began in November.
Officials have told Reuters that they were expecting olive oil production at between 90,000 tonnes and 100,000 tonnes this season from 210,000 tonnes in the previous harvest.
They blamed the uneven rainfall for the sharp decline on output as well as the neglect of the horticulture season because last year's larger production took so long.