Tunisia's Olive Oil Exports Rise 55% as Bulk Trade Dominates
- Tunisian olive oil exports rose 55.3% to 368,000 tonnes between November 2025 and July 2026.
- Bulk oil still makes up 86% of Tunisian exports, with packaged oil at only 14%.
- Spain and Italy together take more than half of Tunisia's olive oil exports.
Spain and Italy take more than half of Tunisia's olive oil exports, mostly as bulk oil still to be blended and bottled.
Tunisia's olive oil exports have grown 55.3% this season to 368,000 tonnes. Spain and Italy between them take more than half of it, mostly as bulk oil still to be blended and bottled rather than sold as a finished product.
According to Óleo Revista, citing figures from Tunisia's national agriculture observatory ONAGRI, exports ran to 368,000 tonnes between November 2025 and July 2026, against 236,900 tonnes a year earlier. Export revenue rose 44.4% to 4,605.3 million Tunisian dinars. The average export price for the period was 12.51 DT/kg, rising to 13.16 DT/kg in July, up from 12.97 DT/kg the previous July.
Bulk oil still accounts for 86% of the volume shipped, with packaged oil at just 14% despite growing 50.8% to 51,500 tonnes. Extra virgin makes up 83.6% of the total, at 307,500 tonnes and an average price of 13 DT/kg. That split matters for anyone buying olive oil as an ingredient rather than a retail product: most of what leaves Tunisia is still raw material for someone else's blending line, not a finished item ready for a UK shelf.
Spain takes 32.1% of Tunisian exports and Italy 20%, with the EU as a whole absorbing 57.1% of the volume. For a UK manufacturer buying olive oil through a Spanish or Italian supplier, that concentration is the point of contact that actually matters, not the Tunisian export figure itself. A contract with a Spanish bottler or blender is where a shift in Tunisian bulk supply actually shows up, whether in the price agreed at the next review or in the terms covering origin mix.
The organic side of the trade shows the same pattern in sharper form. Organic exports reached 51,200 tonnes, worth around 673.4 million dinars, but 93.8% of that left as bulk oil, priced at 12.93 DT/kg, against 16.60 DT/kg for packaged organic oil. Italy takes 38% of Tunisia's organic exports and Spain 26%, and much of that organic oil moves on as bulk material priced well below the packaged rate before a bottler's margin is added.
This quarter, that is the contract worth reviewing: ask the Spanish or Italian supplier what proportion of a given batch is Tunisian bulk material, and how the price paid actually breaks down between origin cost and the bottler's own margin.
Businesses that track where their olive oil actually originates, rather than just who invoices for it, are in a stronger position to question that margin than those who take the bottled price at face value.