Tunisia is ranked number one in the field of olive growing. Tunisian olive groves comprise no fewer than 50 million olive trees and cover an area of 1.4 million hectares, accounting for 29% of all arable land in the country. Further, 29% of all Tunisian farmers claim olive growing as their main activity (94,000 olive growers out of a total of 326,000 farmers). No other olive growing country has attained such levels. Tunisia”s export structure features the same predominance of olive oil, compared with the export structures of other olive growing countries, which means that Tunisia can be considered as the top olive oil exporting country. Thus, the relatively large share of funds devoted to olive growing qualifies Tunisia as number one in the field, even though the country ranks only fifth in absolute terms, providing just over 6% of world production, and second in olive oil exports, with 16% of world exports. The olive growing sub-sector is currently falling off somewhat, which for want of structural reforms is liable to seriously affect prosperity. Although this present study is confined to the elaboration of a Marketing Master Plan for Oils in Tunisia, we have deemed it necessary to cover all the components of the olive growing sector. The recommendations put forward are basically strategic, constituting the necessary prerequisites for implementing reforms within immediate reach. Most of these recommendations have therefore been drawn up within the general framework of the agriculture sector adjustment. The strategic scope of certain initiatives should give rise to a socio-economic development option in the subsector that is both forthrightly expressed and fully supplied with the means to implement it; otherwise, the pockets of resistance that currently prevail within the sector may well oppose the introduction of essential reforms. (Author abstract)
