In a specific analysis note recently seen by EUROPE, the Tunisian Observatory of the Economy (OTE) states that European support to Tunisian olive oil in April 2016 "did not materialise in tangible terms".
"Quite the opposite, the export quota to the EU for duty-free olive oil fell from 27% in 2015 to 19% in 2016, in other words a fall of 8%", the OTE study states.
After heated debates in the European Parliament, the EU "granted a temporary additional export quota of 35,000 tonnes for duty-free Tunisian olive oil for 2016 and 2017, as support to Tunisia after the terrorist attacks in 2015", the OTE states. Tunisia already enjoys a duty-free quota of 57,600 tonnes per year.
The OTE analysis shows that "the support, adopted at the same time as the first round of the DCFTA negotiation, appears more as a charm offensive to Tunisia than as genuine support to the Tunisian olive oil sector".
The monthly quota management system is reportedly being challenged and would seem to point to the difficulty experienced in achieving the quotas. "In 2013, the fact that the peak of Tunisian olive oil exports to the EU coincides with a minimum monthly quota" explains that Tunisia "has not been able to use up all the annual quota" and is only reported to have achieved 36% of it.
According to the OTE, the improvement brought a year ago does not seem to have been successful either. "The EU has not been convincing in its support to the Tunisian olive oil sector, as in practice Tunisia has neither benefited from the usual quota, only being able to export 6,000 tonnes [as of January 2016], nor has it benefited from the additional quota which was only used up to 30%".
Last January, at the end of the oil year, the Tunisian national oil office (ONH) said that national production of olive oil had experienced a considerable decline during that season. "100,000 tonnes, compared with an annual average of 180,000 tonnes, in other words a regression of over 55%", the ONH states. By contrast, Tunisia, which is the second producer globally after Spain, and the first exporter, experienced an "exceptional season" in 2014-2015. (Original version in French by Fathi B’Chir).